Music: {allcanada} Pospisil stuns Berdych to reach quarters

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MONTREAL — Vasek Pospisil is through to the quarter-finals of the US$3.49-million men's Rogers Cup.

The Vernon, B.C., native came out on top of a tight match with fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych to win 7-5, 2-6, 7-6 (5) before a roaring crowd of supporters on Thursday.

After Berdych hit wide on match point, the 23-year-old Pospisil flung his hat on the ground and held his head in happy disbelief. The crowd packed into the National Bank court seats saluted the win with the "Ole Ole" song usually reserved for the Montreal Canadiens.

In Friday's quarter-finals, Pospisil will face the winner of a match between Russians Nikolay Davydenko and Alex Bogomolov.

It was Pospisil's first career win over an opponent ranked in the top 10 in the world. The six-foot-four righthander is coming off a win last week in a Challenger series event in Vancouver.

Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., a quarter-finalist last year in Toronto, faces Juan Martin Del Potro later Thursday and will try to give Canada two quarter-finalists in the Rogers Cup for the first time since Andrew Sznejder and Grant Connell in 1989. The winner faces Ernests Gulbis in the quarter-finals.

Results & Order of Play: Men (Montreal) | Women (Toronto)

On centre court, fourth-seeded Rafael Nadal improved to 45-3 this year — best on the ATP Tour –with a 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory over 15th-seeded Jerzy Janowicz on Thursday.

He is 7-0 on hardcourts this year. The Spaniard has seven tournament wins this year, including his only previous hardcourt event at Indian Wells.

But Wimbledon champion Andy Murray went down to a shocking 6-4, 6-3 defeat at the hands of Gulbis, a Latvian who Murray had beaten in all five of their previous meetings.

The Scot was in his first tournament since becoming the first British man to win Wimbledon in 77 years. He looked sharp beating Marcel Granollers in his opening match Wednesday

"I looked on this monitor that I lost to him five times, but honestly I just remember the last match we played in Cincinnati," said Gulbis. "It was a really tough match, but it was in 2010.

"It was a really long time ago. I was a different person, he was a different player. When I play against Nadal, honestly I don't care that I lost to him six or seven times. Every match is like a new thing. Let's delete all the past. Let's start from zero. So I'm 1-0 with Murray."

In the first match of the day on centre court, Janowicz used a service break to take a 6-5 lead, but Nadal broke back with a sweet cross-court return on game point. He trailed 5-2 in the tiebreak and won that as well.

Janowicz, a semifinalist at Wimbledon, won the first three games of the second set, only to see Nadal fight back again, break service for a 5-4 lead and then serve out the match.

Nadal said the six-foot-eight Janowicz has the tools to become a top-five player on tour.

"I had a very good victory today against a very difficult opponent," said Nadal. "I did a few things well during the match, a few things that I need to improve a little bit more.

"His serve is huge. His forehand and backhand can be very dangerous. When he plays with a little bit of regular shots, he will become a very difficult player to beat. If he is able to maintain the right level during whole match he will be a player that will be in the very top positions."

After ousting Canadian Frank Dancevic in the second round, Janowicz felt he could've given Nadal more of a battle had he served better.

"Actually I'm upset a little bit," he said. "I didn't practise at all after Hamburg, so I didn't play tennis for two weeks.

"I'm still quite happy I was able to get three matches here. That's most important for me, to get as many matches as possible before the U.S. Open. Today, even without my best game, without especially my first serve, I was able to fight."

Nadal won the Rogers Cup in 2005, his first hardcourt victory, and in 2008.

In another early match, Bosnian-born Australian Marinko Matosevic, who got into the main draw as a qualifier, celebrated his 28th birthday with a 7-6 (7), 6-7 (10), 6-3 win over Benoit Paire of France.

"Unbelievable match," said Matosevic, who caught a break in the second round when his 10th-seeded opponent Tommy Haas retired with a shoulder injury. "I knew it would be a special win on my birthday."

But up next is Nadal, who beat Matosevic 6-1, 6-2 on clay in Monte Carlo this year.

"I'm not happy about that after playing two-and-a-half hours," said Matosevic. "I'm sure he'll make me run.

"And he beat me pretty easily in Monte Carlo. He's one of the greatest payers and a credit to tennis. It's great to see him back playing and healthy."

Matosevic also reached the quarter-finals last week in Washington, where he beat Raonic in the third round before losing to Dmitry Tursunov.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic is in action later Thursday.