THE end of Roger Federer's long reign as world No1 moved closer when he suffered a shock second-round defeat by Frenchman Gilles Simon at the Toronto Masters. Back on court for the first time since his epic loss to Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon final, Federer was beaten 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 and his ranking is now under serious threat from Nadal who beat American qualifier Jesse Levine 6-4, 6-2.
Federer had looked ready to take out his Wimbledon disappointment on Simon when he won the first four games on the way to the opening set. But Simon, riding the momentum from his championship win in Indianapolis on Sunday, refused to buckle, battli
ng back to beat the 12-times grand-slam winner and reach the third round. It was the first time Federer had lost his opening match in a tournament since falling to Scotland's Andy Murray in Dubai in March.
"The hard court season just started so it is not the end of the world but I wish I could have started better," said Federer. "I like this surface, I like this tournament, I have done well in the past here so it definitely hurts. I have to regroup and look forward. The bigger picture is the Olympic Games and the US Open and those are the places I really want to win so I have to make sure I am ready for that."
The 22nd-ranked Simon represented a tricky opponent for the rusty Federer, who had only resumed practice four days before arriving in Toronto and received a first-round bye.
Simon, meanwhile, was well into his hardcourt campaign after claiming his fourth career win and second title of the season in Indianapolis with a straight-sets victory over Russian Dmitry Tursunov.
"I was playing like I was in a dream," Simon said. "I just saw the ball and hit it as hard as possible. I don't know it is really unbelievable to beat Roger like this. I'm so confident actually because I won the tournament last week. For sure this is my best victory. I don't think that you win so many times against the No1."
Murray advanced to the third round with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Sweden's Thomas Johansson. The world No9 and eighth seed, who was making his first singles appearance since losing in the quarter-final of Wimbledon to eventual champion Rafael Nadal, won the first set with a decisive break in the 10th game. The 21-year-old from Dunblane struggled with his serve throughout, dropping his opening two service games in the second set, before demonstrating his now familiar resilience to triumph over the 1999 champion of this event in one hour 38 minutes. The Scot was scheduled to meet Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka last night.
Wawrinka, the world No10, has won three out of five career meetings with Murray and was a 6-3, 6-4 second-round winner over Russia's former world No1 Marat Safin.
Murray missed an opportunity to break in Johansson's opening service game as the first set went with serve until the sixth game. The Swede, who reached a career-high ranking of seventh in 2002, capitalised on his first break-point chance but Murray immediately broke back. Murray then held serve and broke Johansson for the second successive service game to clinch the first set. The Scot's second serve continued to trouble him, with Johansson breaking in the opening game of the second set before holding serve. Johansson took a 3-0 lead with a further break, but Murray stormed back and claimed victory when he broke the Swede for a fifth time.
Nadal, also back in action for the first time since Wimbledon, fell 4-1 behind in the opening set against Levine.
But the Spaniard found his range and his opponent had few answers, Nadal cruising to an easy win which stretched his unbeaten run to 25 matches.
The full article contains 673 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
