Rising Canadian tennis star Milos Raonic is getting awfully familiar with Swiss whiz Roger Federer these days.

The two will meet for the third time this year in the quarterfinals of the grass-court Gerry Weber Open Friday after Federer eliminated German Florian Mayer 6-4, 6-4 in 74 minutes Thursday in Halle, Germany. Federer, by the way, has won the Gerry Weber tournament five times.

Federer, who has 16 Grand Slam titles to his credit and is considered to be perhaps the best player of his generation, has won the previous two encounters with Raonic, the 21-year-old wunderkind from Thornhill, Ont.

But Raonic, seeded fifth in the ATP 250 tournament and ranked 21st in the world, has pushed Federer to the maximum three-set limit in both matches, first on the hard courts of Indian Wells then on the clay in Madrid.

French Open champ Rafael Nadal also moved into the quarterfinals with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Lukas Lacko of Slovakia. Nadal will play defending champ Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany.

In the men's doubles quarterfinals Thursday, Raonic and fellow Canadian Adil Shamsdin were eliminated with a 6-3, 7-5 loss to Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.