TORONTO – The Round of 16 at Rogers Cup kicked off on Thursday producing some entertaining matchups.

On Toronto’s Centre Court, No. 3 seed Kei Nishikori had little trouble in his match, needing just 68 minutes to defeat American Rajeev Ram 6-3, 6-4.Following his victory, Nishikori addressed how he felt physically following an injury that ended his run at Wimbledon just a few weeks ago.

“Yeah, I think it’s good,” the No. 3 seed said. “Well, still not maybe 100% yet but feeling pretty strong. I mean, first match from three weeks, three or four weeks ago. I mean, never easy but feeling pretty good. Well, we’ll have to see after a couple more matches, but right now I feel good.”

Despite the loss, Ram had a good tournament, posting an upset of 13th-seeded Lucas Pouille on Wednesday. Unfortunately, a second-straight upset was not in the cards as Nishikori was on his game on Thursday. He advanced to the quarter-finals where he will face Grigor Dimitrov who ended Ivo Karlovic’s impressive showing this week, 6-3, 7-5.

The 25-year-old has been rolling this week. Fresh off eliminating Canadian Denis Shapovalov on Wednesday night, Dimitrov fired 14 aces and won 90% of his 1st serve points to defeat the towering Croatian.

Meanwhile, another unseeded player was seeking a second upset in as many days.

On Wednesday, South Africa’s Kevin Anderson advanced past six-seeded Dominic Thiem, albeit as a result of an injury. Due to the retirement, Wednesday’s match lasted just 20 minutes. On Thursday, Anderson knew he would be in for a longer battle.

In a match that lasted two hours and five minutes, Anderson fought back to defeat the 12-seed Bernard Tomic of Australia 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. He struck 26 aces and saved an impressive 89% of break point opportunities to earn the victory.

With two upsets under his belt this week, though, Anderson will need a third if he hopes to advance past the quarters.

In the Round of Eight, he will take on the tournament’s No. 2 seed in Stan Wawrinka, who defeated American Jock Sock 7-6(3), 6-2. Sock showed signs of promise early but the Swiss pulled away and claimed victory in his first match against the Lincoln, Nebraska, native.

There were also two matches on Thursday which involved Top 10 seeds battling head-to-head.

The first was between No. 7 David Goffin and No. 10 Gael Monfils. On paper, it promised to be competitive and, on the court, it was just that.

After losing a marathon opening set 6-7(5), the Belgian fought back to take the second set 6-2. But it was the experienced Frenchman who prevailed as he continues to look good this week in Toronto. He edged Goffin 6-4 in the third and deciding set to advance to Friday’s quarter-final against hometown wunderkind Milos Raonic.

On Wednesday, Raonic needed just 65 minutes to win his second-round match and just 70 on Thursday as he blew past 19-year-old Jared Donaldson 6-2, 6-3, firing 15 aces against the American.

Following his victory, Raonic was asked about Gael Monfils, his next opponent, and what he will need to do to get past the Frenchman.

“I got to play well,” the Canadian said. “I've been able to beat him twice this year because I was controlling – controlling the court – and taking time away from him coming forward. He can do a lot of things and he can play a lot of balls but if you sort of take time away from him, then you make it a little bit more difficult on him so I need to continue doing that.”

Elsewhere, despite going the distance with Ryan Harrison, who entered the tournament via the qualifying draw, fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych prevailed, defeating the American 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-4. He advances to Friday’s quarters where he will face No. 1 Novak Djokovic who beat Berdych’s countryman Radek Stepanek 6-2, 6-4. With each passing set at this tournament, Djokovic’s game has improved.

While Raonic remains the lone Canadian in the singles draw, the host country still had two doubles teams alive entering the competition on Thursday.

The duo of Philip Bester and Adil Shamasdin were looking to book their ticket to the quarters. However, the hometown pair fell to the team of Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram 6-4, 7-6(4). Ram, avenged his loss earlier in the day to Kei Nishikori.

The Canadian fans also had the pair of Vasek Pospisil and veteran Daniel Nestor to cheer. They faced Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock on Thursday and won by virtue of injury. The Canadian duo took the first set 7-6(4) and trailed 1-0 in the second set when Kyrgios and Sock retired. The Canadians advance to the quarters on Friday and will take on the Czech duo of Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek.

Meanwhile, the top-seeded Bryan twins of the United States defeated the team of Marcin Matkowski and Max Mirnyi 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the quarters. There, they will face the Romanian duo of Florian Mergea and Horia Tecau on Friday.

Up next for Klaasen and Ram is the No. 2-seeded team of Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.

Also, the 8th-seeded duo of Henri Kontinen and John Peers got past Grigor Dimitrov and Stan Wawrinka 7-6(4), 6-2. They advance to the quarters against the team of Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo.

Three rounds are down and there are three to go at the 2016 Rogers Cup. If the first few days were any indication, then the final three promise to be memorable.