Nadal, Ferrer advance to third round at Toronto

Tag : Round Over Bit
Second-seeded Spaniard Rafael Nadal advanced to thethird round of the Rogers Cup with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over JesseLevine on Wednesday.
Levine, who was born in Ottawa before moving to the U.S. as ateenager, took advantage of a sluggish Nadal early. He broke theWimbledon champion in the fourth game before taking a 4-1 lead inthe first set.
But Levine failed to capitalize on a break-point chance in the nextgame. Up 4-3, he missed another break point, and Nadal took overfrom there.
Though the crowd was initially pro-Nadal, some support swayed toLevine's side as the plucky 20-year-old - the last Canadian-bornplayer left in the tournament - took an early lead and played theWimbledon champion tough.
"I think they really got behind me a lot of times, and that washelpful,'' said Levine, who moved to Florida when he was 13 andrepresents the U.S. in international play. "There was a lot of Rafasupporters out there. I was trying to hold my own and hoping to getsome support behind me, and I felt like there was.''
All matches were delayed nearly six hours by thunderstorms.
Fellow Spaniard David Ferrer also reached the third round, beatingAmerican Robby Ginepri 6-4, 6-4. It was just Ferrer's second careerwin in six matchups against Ginepri.
There was two early upsets. Croatian Marin Cilic ousted 12th-seededSpaniard Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4, while Russian Igor Andreev beat16th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
Cilic, ranked 44th in the world, will play sixth-seeded AmericanAndy Roddick in the next round. Andreev will meet Nadal.
Levine might have been on his way to an upset of his own, butstumbled when he thought too much about it.
"I think I was in that zone, not sure really where I was, and thenI kind of came to my senses and realized that I'm playing Nadal oncenter court,'' he said. "Obviously, nerves got a little bit of methere.''
Levine took advantage of an uncharacteristically sluggish Nadalearly. He broke the Wimbledon champion in the fourth game beforetaking a 4-1 lead in the first set. But then he failed tocapitalize on a break-point chance in the next game. Up 4-3, hemissed another break point, and Nadal took over from there.
"Once he got that break back I think that he really got settledinto the match,'' Levine said. "I came out kind of flying, andthat's what I wanted to do, but I didn't want to let him back inlike I did, obviously.''
Still, Nadal was impressed by Levine, who's ranked No. 123 in theworld, though he did admit to having never seen him play beforetheir match.
"He's young, so he can be a very good player,'' Nadal said. "Todaywasn't my best match obviously, but I didn't feel very bad afterthe beginning. ... If I don't play better, I'm going to have a lotof problems.''
In other action, Russian Marat Safin beat American Sam Querrey,6-3, 6-3 in a first-round match that began Tuesday before beingsuspended by rain. Safin was to play ninth-seeded StanislasWawrinka of Switzerland in a second-round match later Wednesday.