Montreal: Defending champion Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal eased into the third round of the Montreal Masters with straight-sets wins on Wednesday.
World No. 1 Federer tamed the giant serve of Croat Ivo Karlovic to win 7-6, 7-6 and Nadal beat Russian Marat Safin 7-6, 6-0 in a high-quality match under the lights.
Federer, in his first match since winning his fifth successive Wimbledon title, could not force a single break point but came out on top in two tie-breaks.
"I think I played very well," Federer said.
"I didn't give many chances on my own service game. From the baseline, I hardly missed a shot. I played aggressively. I couldn't read his serve at all - it is definitely the best in the game. I was happy the way I played tiebreakers, both of them. I wasn't very happy with the draw, to be honest. Now that I'm past it, I'm very relieved and happy."
Federer next meets Italian qualifier Fabio Fognini, who upset 13th seed Andy Murray 6-2, 6-2.
Nadal, runner-up to Federer at Wimbledon, had to work hard to get the better of former world No. 1 Safin, who fought back from an early break down to force two set points on his opponent's serve at 6-5.
But once the Spanish world No. 2 had saved both, the writing was on the wall and he took the tiebreak 7-4 before cruising through the second set.
"He played very well to break me back and then I had a little bit of luck to win the set," Nadal said.
"After that, it was a little bit easier."
The Spaniard will next play Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, who beat Croat Mario Ancic 6-3, 6-2.
Solid start
Fifth seed Andy Roddick made a solid start by beating Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-1, 7-6.
The American, who won the title in Washington last weekend, trailed 5-3 in the second-set tiebreak before winning four consecutive points to clinch victory.
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"He started being a lot more aggressive, playing higher risk in the second set," Roddick said.
"It was working for the most part and I was kind of just hanging on there in the second set. But I was just able to kind of hang around long enough, win a couple points in the breaker. It was definitely a tale of two sets."
Roddick will face Marcos Baghdatis after the Cypriot beat Dutchman Robin Haase 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
Lleyton Hewitt was gifted a place in the third round when opponent James Blake withdrew before their match with an abdominal strain.
"I hope four, five days of ice and rest will do for me and I'll be okay for Cincinnati (next week)," American Blake said.
"I need to be careful with the US Open coming up, I don't want to do something that's going to cause some serious damage."
Australian Hewitt will now play Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty, who upset seventh seed Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-2, 6-4, while eighth seed Richard Gasquet squandered a match point before losing 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 to Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
Fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko battled past Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 7-6 to reach the third round and another Russian, 14th seed Mikhail Youzhny, advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.
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