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TORONTO -- There will be no thrilling quarter-final run for Canadian Frank Dancevic at the C$2.6-million Rogers Cup.
Dancevic, 23, of Niagara Falls, Ont., reached the quarter-finals of last year's tournament in Montreal before losing to Spain's Rafael Nadal. On Tuesday night, it was third-seeded Serb Novak Djokovic, the defending champion, who sent Dancevic packing with a 6-4, 6-4 second-round victory before a boisterous Centre Court gathering at Rexall Centre.
"I felt Novak was just on his game from the first ball," Dancevic said. "His returns were getting better and better as the match went on.
"Usually I get a lot of free points on my first serve and today it felt like a lot of balls were coming back so it put added pressure on my side of the court and made it a little bit more difficult to play."
Still, it was a decent showing for Dancevic, ranked No. 82 in the world, against a player who's ranked 79 spots higher. On Monday, Dancevic downed Croatian Mario Ancic, ranked 24th in the world.
Dancevic was the lone Canadian remaining in singles after Peter Polansky of Thornhill, Ont., was eliminated earlier Tuesday. Dancevic remains in doubles with Canadian-born partner Jesse Levine and their first match comes Wednesday night against Australians Paul Hanley and Jordan Kerr.
There were questions about Djokovic's confidence heading into this match given it was his first since a stunning second-round loss at Wimbledon to Russian Marat Safin. After a shaky first service game and nearly being broken, Djokovic capped his first-set win by breaking Dancevic in the 10th game.
Djokovic recorded his second service break in the second set for a 4-2 lead, then went ahead 5-2 by holding serve. With the capacity Centre Court crowd clearly behind him, Dancevic fended off match point to hold serve and make it 5-3.
Dancevic brought some levity to the match in the ninth game when at 15-15 he appealed a line call, and crossed himself just for luck. It worked, as the call was reversed. And when Dancevic got to break point (30-40), the crowd began chanting, `Go Frank Go.' They were rewarded when Djokovic's shot sailed wide, pulling Dancevic to within 5-4.
"The crowd was really awesome," Dancevic said. "I really felt the support the whole match ... it made me break back in the second set and get back into the match."
But with lightning off in the distance, Djokovic returned the favour, earning the break with a brilliant backhand return to clinch the match.
"I was impressed with how he moved for a tall guy," Dancevic said. "I felt like he was really on balance and ready for any ball that I hit.
"He just put a lot of pressure on me. He was returning a lot of balls back and was taking advantage of every opportunity he had and made it more difficult on my side and put pressure on me to go for bigger shots and go closer to the lines and that's what made me miss a little bit."
Sixth-seeded American Andy Roddick also won his second-round match, downing Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-3 despite two rain interruptions.
Roddick needed just 28 minutes to capture both the first and third sets. Roddick was especially strong in the third, blasting six of his 18 aces in the final nine games and going a perfect 15-for-15 in first serve points won.
"I thought I moved well and most importantly I felt good physically," Roddick said. "All in all, I think it was a good match."
Polansky lost a 6-2, 6-4 decision to Levine, an Ottawa native now representing the U.S. after moving to Florida at age 13.
In other action, German Tommy Haas beat Spain's Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-2, 16th-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic beat Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-1, Russian Igor Andreev got past France's Gael Monfils 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3), Sweden's Robin Soderling defeated Argentina's Guillermo Canas 7-5, 6-1, Sweden's Thomas Johansson got past Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev 7-6 (4), 6-1, Gilles Simon of France defeated American Donald Young 6-1, 6-3, Marin Cilic of Croatia beat Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, Spain's Fernando Verdasco defeated Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 and Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman beat France's Arnaud Clement 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.
Roddick initiated one of the suspensions in play when in the first set he walked off the court leading 3-1 with it raining. Roddick said he did so more to prevent injury than risk losing momentum in the match.
"Sure, but I was also scared that I would slip and break a leg," he said. "The risk-reward there was a little obvious.
"It was coming down pretty hard."
Roddick also disputed a line call that allowed Mahut to hold serve in the second set and tie the score at 1-1. Roddick was chasing down a Mahut shot when it was called out, so he didn't take a swing at it despite being close enough to. The call was over-ruled -- rightfully so, the American said -- so Roddick figured there would be a replay of the point.
Instead, the umpire gave Mahut the point to tie the set.
"I guess the rule is you have to be 100 per cent sure the person can't get to the ball and I said I would've had to have alligator arms not to get to that ball," he said. "I was a foot away from it so I just couldn't understand it.
"And then I think when they realize they're wrong sometimes they sit here until they convince themselves that they made the right call. But the replay guy completely sold him out. I had a talk with him just now and everything is fine but I finally said, `I don't really care about the point, I just want you to tell me you know you made the wrong call.' Some days they go your way, some days they don't."
Polansky got behind Levine early. Polansky was broken all four times he served in the first set and earned his two games via service break as well. Polansky was at a loss for an explanation.
"I don't know," he said. "He was returning well.
"I just couldn't hold my serve."
Playing in this event allowed Polansky to spent some time at his home, which is located about a 10-minute drive from the Rexall Centre. However, Polansky said he didn't feel any extra pressure to perform before the home-town crowd.
"It's a really big event and they don't expect you to win it or sometimes even get past the first round," he said. "I really felt I had a chance to win my match and it's too bad.
"I felt like everyone was behind me and I don't take it as pressure as I do opportunity."
Levine, 20, moved to Florida with his family but not to play tennis. His brother, Daniel, 17, has ulcerative colitis and the thought was the warm weather would be better for him. Levine can represent the U.S. because his father is American.
Levine advanced to a second-round showdown Wednesday night with Nadal, the tournament's second seed and this year's French Open and Wimbledon champion.
"Obviously I'm looking forward to playing on (Centre Court) against Rafael Nadal," Levine said. "He's a great player and I always watch him on TV and it will be kind of cool to play him."
Top-seeded Roger Federer will also play his first match Wednesday, taking on Simon.
With Dancevic now out, Levine is the lone Canadian-born player in the tournament and is hoping Toronto's fans realize that when he faces Nadal.
"That would be nice to get them behind me," he said. "I think that helped Peter out a lot today.
"Getting fans behind you is such a big thing."
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