h and came home 14th.It was a cruel end to a championship battle he had led

MASON, Ohio -- With a bothersome injury blunting his lethal serve, Canadas Milos Raonic lost his bid a second straight quarter-final appearance at a Masters 1000 event with a 7-6 (5), 6-4 loss to American John Isner Thursday at the Western & Southern Open. Coming off a trip to the finals in last weeks Rogers Cup, Raonic was treated for a pinched nerve in his neck after five games of the match, which featured an opening set lasting for almost one hour. After the on-court session, Raonic managed to carry on. Raonic admitted that his usual 210-225 kilometre-per-hour serving speed has been compromised in his recent matches due to the physical problem. "It made a few situations more difficult and it also relieved pressure on his return games," he said. "But I was able to do a lot of things well to compensate for that lack of serving ability." The loss was the second against Isner for the 12th seed from Thornhill, Ont. Raonic was also beaten by his North American rival in their only other meeting last summer in Toronto. Raonic ended a frustrating afternoon with a paltry four aces and lost his serve twice. Isner rained down 13 aces in victory. The world No. 10 will likely benefit from some rest after playing for much of the past 10 days with the US Open starting a week from Monday in New York. "I should be fine once the arm gets up to speed," Raonic said. "Im very optimistic going into the Open. "Im doing a lot of things well and getting a lot of confidence. I played great last week and played well this week." He said the shoulder issues came up early in the Rogers Cup week where he made the final against Rafael Nadal and reached a top 10 ranking for the first time. "Ill get in some training and concentrate on the physical and stay away from the tennis for a few days," te 22-year-old said. "Ill then get back onto the court as much as I can." Raonic lost the opening set in the tiebreaker between the two noted big servers, with Isner nailing it down with an ace. Isner secured a break in the penultimate game of the second set on a forehand winner to the empty court and sealed victory a point later with a service winner after 96 minutes. Elsewhere, Roger Federer overcome a rough start and emerged from his string of subpar showings since Wimbledon. He beat Tommy Haas 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals. The fifth-seeded Swiss star has been struggling to get his game back in shape since he was upset at Wimbledon by a player ranked 116th in the world. Hes switched rackets and been limited by a sore back. Hes won in Cincinnati an unprecedented five times, including last year. Also Thursday, No. 1 Novak Djokovic needed only 50 minutes to beat qualifier David Goffin, 6-2, 6-0, leaving him on track for a little ATP history. Hes lost in the finals four times at Cincinnati, the only Masters series event he has yet to win. A victory would make him the first player to win all nine Masters. "I played four times finals, so its been one of the tournaments where Ive performed well," Djokovic said. "Never managed to make the final step, and hopefully this year I can do so. "I have an extra motivation and an opportunity to make history in this tournament, so Im very inspired to play well day after day." It appeared Federer wasnt long for the tournament after a stunningly bad start against Haas. The 35-year-old Haas needed only 31 minutes to win the first set and was up 4-2 in the second before Federer started to approach the net, hitting shots with confidence and taking control. He pumped his right fist after a backhand return hugged the line to set up a break point that put him up 5-3 in the final set, and again when he finished it off -- one of his few satisfying moments in months. Earlier Thursday, seventh-seeded Juan Martin del Potro earned a berth in the quarter-finals, holding off 27th-ranked Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 1-6, 6-4. Russian qualifier Dmitry Tursunov pulled off another upset, beating third-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer 6-2, 6-4. The 44th-ranked Tursunov never lost his serve while reaching the quarter-finals for the first time in six appearances at the event. Also reaching the quarter-finals were second-seeded Andy Murray and sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych. Fourth-seeded Rafael Nadal beat Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 in a two-hour evening match and will play Federer in the quarter-finals Friday night. Nadal has overcome an injured left knee that wiped out the end of last season and a stomach virus that affected him early this year, taking a career-best mark of 50-3 into the quarter-finals. On the womens side, second-seeded Victoria Azarenka, fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, fifth-seeded Li Na, 10th-seeded Caroline Wozniacki and 14th-seeded Jelena Jankovic advanced to the quarter-finals. Azarenka withdrew from last weeks Rogers Cup in Toronto with a lower back injury. The previous week, she lost to Samantha Stosur in the finals of the Southern California Open. Azarenka reached the quarter-finals for the first time in three appearances at the event. Last year, Djokovic lost in the finals to Federer. It was a record fifth win in Cincinnati for the 32-year-old Swiss star, who is hoping to get his game straightened out on the fast, blue centre court that has always seemed to favour him. Federer was beaten in the second round at Wimbledon by Sergiy Stakhovsky, his earliest exit from a Grand Slam event since 2003. That ended Federers streak of reaching the quarter-finals in 36 straight major tournaments. The improbable upsets were just starting. Federer lost to a 114th-ranked qualifier in the semifinals at Hamburg and was beaten by a 55th-ranked player in his opening match at Gstaad, Switzerland. There were reasons that figured in the losses: He was experimenting with a larger racket and his back was bothering him. He skipped Montreal last week to get ready for Cincinnati, hoping a good showing this week would get him ready for the U.S. Open. Wojciech Szczesny Jersey . "It was nerve-wracking, but we pulled through," said Collaros, who threw four touchdown passes to lead the Toronto Argonauts (8-4) to a 33-27 win over the Calgary Stampeders (9-3) in front of 28,781 fans at McMahon Stadium. Mario Mandzukic Juventus Jersey . He said Tuesday thats a big reason why he is now the new coach of the Tennessee Titans. Whisenhunt said he hit it off quickly with Ruston Webster when interviewing for the job Friday night. http://www.juventusfcpro.com/Kids-Alex-Sandro-Jersey/ . Goals from Jerome Boateng, Franck Ribery and Thomas Mueller extended Bayerns unbeaten run to a record 37 matches. "This record is incredible," Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. Leonardo Bonucci Juventus Jersey .Y. -- Marcell Dareus and the Buffalo Bills defence made life miserable for Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco. Andrea Barzagli Juventus Jersey . Tracey comes to the Blue Bombers after spending over a decade with Queens University. Most recently he was the schools assistant football coach.The Duel in the Desert? Yes, Formula 1 has been here before. Two years ago in fact, when the first exclusive battle for the world title between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg came down to a final-race shootout in the opulent surroundings of Abu Dhabis Yas Marina Circuit.On that occasion it was Hamilton in the box seat - the Briton led Rosberg by 17 points following a spurt of five wins in the previous six races. Leaving Spa, and the Mercedes team-mates acrimonious collision, in late August, Rosberg had been as many as 29 points ahead but Hamilton reeled him in relentlessly thereafter. However, Hamiltons challenge in Abu Dhabi was made tougher by what turned out to be the one-off, and highly controversial, advent of double points for the season finale. The title picture going to Abu Dhabi 2014 1. Lewis Hamilton 334 points 2. Nico Rosberg 317 points +17 points The fact there were 50, rather than the usual 25, points up for grabs for the race winner meant Hamilton needed to finish at least second to secure the crown. Under the points system in place for the previous 18 races, and every one since Abu Double, sixth would have got the job done.It wasnt quite winner takes all, but the unusual permutations still meant nothing could be taken for granted heading into the decider. WIN! VIP Silverstone Experience for 2 Motorsport Manager are offering Sky Sports fans the chance to win a VIP trip for 2 to Silverstone What happened in Qualifying?Mercedes front-row lockouts have rarely been in doubt this season, and that was certainly the case in 2014 when the Silver Arrows were almost untouchable in the first year of F1s new hybrid engine era.Abu Dhabi represented their eighth successive qualifying one-two although, in the twist the title battle needed for the neutral, it was Rosberg who beat an error-strewn Hamilton to pole position.Hamilton had led the way in the first two stages of qualifying but lost out to his team-mate by 0.386 seconds when the pressure cranked up in the final shootout. Lock-ups under braking on each of his Q3 timed laps meant he ended up closer to the Williams cars directly behind than Rosberg ahead. Abu Dhabi 2014 Qualifying 1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:40.480 2. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.386 3. Valtteri Bottas Williams +0.545 4.dddddddddddd Felipe Massa Williams +0.639 It was a scruffy qualifying from Lewis and he could have been just fifth, said Sky F1s Martin Brundle in commentary at the time. He just over-drives the final part of qualifying - which isnt what he used to do. It will have hurt his pride to be out-qualified so comprehensively.It was Rosbergs 11th pole of the year, but he wasnt getting carried away: This weekend is about the championship and not about pole position. It would have been great if somehow a Williams could have got between the two of us but that can always happen tomorrow.As it turned out, the polesitter was right to be cautious.What happened in the Race?The start was like a rocket and probably the best Ive ever had, Hamilton later reflected.Its more often the case that a race can be lost at the first corner, rather than won, but for Hamilton the latter essentially proved true as he made the most electric of getaways to overtake polesitter Rosberg well before the first corner.His second world title was effectively clinched right there and then. Enjoying a small, but comfortable, two-second lead over his team-mate in the races opening 20 laps, Hamilton was already well on course for the title when Rosbergs W05 developed what would turn into a crippling energy-recovery failure just before half distance.The Formula 1 Gossip ColumnDown on power, and increasingly in trouble with his over-worked brakes, Rosbergs race turned into an agonising slide down the order as he attempted to get to the finish in the fifth place that would still see him become champion if Hamilton himself hit terminal car trouble.But with seven laps to go Rosberg was seventh and, with his car problems only worsening, he was asked by his race engineer if he wanted to retire. Despite the hopelessness of the situation, and the fact he was lapped by his team-mate, Rosberg manfully soldiered to the finish and came home 14th.It was a cruel end to a championship battle he had led for so long, but the German still sought out Hamilton afterwards to personally congratulate the newly-crowned double world champion. Its been so intense between us all year long, said Hamilton. Theres been good moments and bad moments. Without a doubt weve had a friendship or a relationship that we built a long, long, long time ago, so that will always be there. He was a very, very fierce competitor this year, he did an exceptional job. Hes going to be quick for a long time.Perhaps things naturally will ease up a little now. He was graceful enough to come up to me and see me after, which I really appreciated. It was really big of him to be able to do that. Its very, very tough, I know what its like losing a championship so, for sure, well keep working at it.Two years on the rivalry on track remains just as intense, with another world championship crown on the line in the Duel in the Desert...Part Two. Also See: When is the Abu Dhabi GP on Sky F1? Abu Dhabi title permutations Watch the title decider on NOW TV The F1 Gossip Column ' ' '