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TORONTO (AP) — Gael Monfils of France defeated Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-3, 6-3 and fifth seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic beat Croatia's Borna Coric 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 at the Rogers Cup on Tuesday.
Despite dropping his first set, Berdych said that he wasn't concerned because it was an early break.
"I mean it was by my mistakes and then it was just basically trying to get used to the conditions because they were quite different," the world No. 8 said.
"I was just really trying to be patient with myself. Trying also to look for the opportunities. And that's what paid off."
Tournament No. 2 seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland held off Russian Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (3), 7-6 (8) in Tuesday's late match.
Taiwan's Yen-Hsun Lu admits he's a bit nervous about facing hometown star Milos Raonic on Wednesday, but he's banking on the fourth-seeded Canadian having a few butterflies too.
Lu, who advanced to the second round on Tuesday with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Alexander Zverev of Germany, will have few backers among the expected capacity crowd at the 12,500-seat Aviva Centre.
"All the spectators against you is very tough," Lu said. "But, I mean, this is what he should get because he comes from the country and he's one of the best players right now."
Later Tuesday, Canada's Vasek Pospisil defeated Jeremy Chardy in first-round action after the Frenchman retired with a right foot injury.
Chardy started to favor his foot after Pospisil went up 30-0 in the first game of the second set. Chardy called for the trainer and waited several minutes before deciding that he couldn't go on.
Pospisil won the first set 7-6 (3). The Vancouver product will face Monfils in the second round.
Raonic, who grew up in the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, will be playing his first match since the Wimbledon men's final where he lost to Andy Murray.
Lu says that in order to beat the Canadian, he will have to have a strong service game, but he's also hoping to exploit any nerves that Raonic may have as he returns home.
"If I can try to make more balls into the court to play, I have a little bit better chance," he said. "I have to focus on my service game to stay with him and to maybe give him a little bit of pressure and waiting for him maybe a little bit getting nervous from the tensions and give me a chance."
Raonic, who had a bye in the first round of the Rogers Cup, is 2-0 against the 32-year-old Lu, with his last victory coming in 2014 in Monte Carlo. Lu said he's noticed a lot of improvement in Raonic's game recently.
"He getting more stable from the baseline," Lu said. "He plays all different kind of game. He can come in, he's making (things) difficult."
In men's doubles action, Vancouver's Philip Bester and Adil Shamasdin of Toronto got past world No. 1 singles player Novak Djokovic and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia 7-5, 4-6, 10-2.
Tied at 30-30 in the second set, Bester double-faulted to give the Serbs break point before double faulting again to give Djokovic and Zimonjic the set.
"I wanted to keep things interesting for the crowd," Bester joked. "That's just sport, that's tennis, that kind of stuff happens to me, it happens to everybody and as soon as we went to the change-over, the most important thing for me personally was to have a short memory about it and also to communicate with Adil that I was ready to move on to the tiebreaker."
Bester and Shamasdin will next play South Africa's Raven Klaasen and American Rajeev Ram.
Lu, ranked 70th in the world, improved to 3-3 on the ATP World Tour circuit this season with his victory over Zverev. He made headlines at Wimbledon in 2010 when he beat American Andy Roddick in an epic five-set thriller.
The Taiwanese player was ousted in the first round of the Rogers Cup last year by Pospisil.
After right elbow surgery delayed the start of his season, he's gone on to lose to Djokovic in the first round of Roland Garros and Murray in the second round of Wimbledon.
Lu says he'll have to stop Raonic's weapon — his serve — if he's going to be successful on center court against the world No. 7.
"He's one of the best players right now," Lu said. "For me, I really need to stay very strong in my serve and hope I can always catch him and give him some pressure."
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