Toronto champion Andy Murray was tested in his opening match at the Cincinnati Masters as Frenchman Jeremy Chardy made life a misery before finally going down to a 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 6-2 second-round defeat.
Fourth seed Murray on Wednesday looked to be in control after winning the first set in 29 minutes. Chardy, ranked 58th, was going nowhere. The underdog gave Murray a workout, denying a match point in the 10th game of the second and taking the struggle into a final set on his own second set point. Murray finally regained control, winning on his third opportunity to advance in a scratchy performance lasting two-and-a-quarter hours.
Wins from Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer sent that trio of seeds into the third round. Top seed Nadal benefited from 40 unforced errors off the racket of American Taylor Dent in a 6-2, 7-5 second-round defeat.
Djokovic eliminated fellow Serb Viktor Troicki 6-3, 7-5 Nadal said that the vast difference between court speed in Toronto and Cincinnati needed to be addressed. "Make the courts similar, more similar between Toronto and here or between Montreal and here," said the world number one. "For us it's difficult to adapt, especially if you only have one or two days.
"When you arrive in the semi-finals or finals (the weekend prior) it's not easy to adapt, especially in the beginning. It's such a big change that the first match always is very dangerous."
Spaniard Ferrer, the number 10, denied the hopes of Los Angeles champion Sam Querrey in a 7-5, 6-2 defeat. Nadal won without an ace against Dent, who missed two years of tennis due to back surgery and recovery.
Nadal, a five-time ATP champion this season, has stalled at the Cincinnati semi-finals at the last two editions. The Spaniard has won 35 of his past 37 matches since the second week of April.
Nadal improved to 51-6 this season. Djokovic said he overcame a lapse in the second set on his way to his win. "I did have a decrease of the level, it was a very ugly set with a lot of unforced errors on both sides, a lot of double faults. "It turned around in this second game when I lost my serve, I felt uncomfortable after that.
I was struggling to hit the ball really well.
But I recovered, it was good to go through in straight sets." American Mardy Fish, winner of back-to-back summer titles, upset eighth seed Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (7-4) while Latvian Ernests Gulbis won into a match-up with Murray after defeating 13th seed Jurgen Melzer 6-7 (8-10) 6-3, 7-6 (7-5). Defending champion Roger Federer was starting his campaign later against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.