TENNIS WORLD

Djokovic Defeats Dancevic; Swedes, Russians Advance

World No. 3 Novak Djokovic made a confident start to his title defense, Tuesday at the Rogers Masters in Toronto, as he defeated Canada's title hope Frank Dancevic 6-4, 6-4 in second round action.
Djokovic held his chance to serve out the match at 5-3, but double-faulted to set up a break point chance for Dancevic. The Canadian capitalized on his opportunity to return the match on serve, but then was broken in the next game as Djokovic secured victory in 77 minutes.
The 21-year-old Serb is chasing his third ATP Masters Series title of the season (Indian Wells, Hamburg), and is attempting to become the first repeat winner in Canada since Andre Agassi won back-to-back titles in 1994-95. Last year, Djokovic upset the Top 3 players of the South African Airways ATP Rankings - Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick - en route to the Montreal title.
Dancevic, 23, earned his place in the second round after defeating former Top 10 player Mario Ancic on Monday. The Niagara Falls native reached the quarterfinals last year (l. to Nadal).
Spaniard Fernando Verdasco (pictured), the No. 13 seed, regrouped for a 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci in his first round match. Following a slow start, Verdasco converted on all three of his break point chances in the final set to clinch the win in one hour and 49 minutes.
The 25-year-old Verdasco won his second career ATP title on Sunday in Umag, and afterwards reached a career-high ranking of No. 11. Beginning with his final run at Nottingham last month (l. to Karlovic), he has now won 14 of his last 17 matches.

Verdasco takes a 1-3 head-to-head record into his second round match against Sweden’s Robin Soderling, most recently a straight-sets loss in February at Rotterdam. World No. 49 Soderling fired 11 aces and won 71 percent of his service points to oust 2002 champion Guillermo Canas, 7-5, 6-1.
A pair of veteran Swedes also advanced in first round action. Jonas Bjorkman (pictured right), who is making his final Rogers Masters appearance, defeated fellow qualifier Arnaud Clement of France 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, while 1999 champion Thomas Johansson defeated Kazakhstani qualifier Andrey Golubev, 7-6(4), 6-1. Johansson had lost to Bjorkman in the final round of qualifying on Monday, but earned his place in the main draw after Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis withdrew with a wrist injury.
Russian Igor Andreev, coming off of runner-up finishes the last two weeks at Gsaad (l. to Hanescu) and Umag (l. to Verdasco), reached the second round with a 7-6(5), 7-6(3) win over Frenchman Gael Monfils. Compatriot Dmitry Tursunov, a finalist last week in Indianapolis (l. to Simon), made his way past Ecuadorian Nicolas Lapentti 6-3, 6-4 in 72 minutes.
Meanwhile, Russian qualifier Alexandre Kudryavtsev notched his second career ATP match win as he surprised German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 7-6(7). Kudryavtsev, currently No. 203 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, faces No. 10 seed Richard Gasquet next.