Murray starts his summer season with tough Canadian win

By Bill Scott Aug 11, 2009, 21:16 GMT

Montreal - Andy Murray and Nikolay Davydenko began their push to the US Open with opening victories at the Montreal Masters as each played his first North American hardcourt match of the summer.

Third seed Murray, poised to take over the number two ranking should newly returned defending champion Rafael Nadal falter at all this week, hung tough as he worked out the kinks after five weeks off.

The Scot defeated Jeremy Chardy of France 6-4, 6-2, striking nine aces and saving six break points in a momentum-shifting struggle.

Davydenko, seeded eighth and making the latest possible start on this side of the Atlantic, advanced into the third round after a bye over France's Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-2), in a two-hour workout.

Murray said he got a good workout against number 36 Chardy, who won the Stuttgart clay title last month.

'I started well and every time I was in a tough situation I came up with some big serves and some big shots. That was the difference.'

Should Murray go farther than Nadal in Montreal, the Scot could fall into second in the rankings behind Roger Federer, according to ATP calculations. Nadal has rested for two-and-a-half months in hopes of easing his knee tendinitis.

'There were a lot of tough moments,' said Murray. 'I saw 10, 11 break points. That's always good when you come back. That was the thing I was most pleased with ... in the tight moments I came up with some big shots.'

Murray awaits the winner from 13th seed Gael Monfils and former french Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero.

The Spaniard, whose career is taking off once again at age 29, defeated fellow former number one Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 6-3, with the Australian still suffering with a muscle tear from last week in Washington.

'I haven't been able to practise since arriving here,' said the number 40. 'I wasn't expecting a whole lot out there today.

'In the back of my mind, I didn't want to do any more damage to my leg either, obviously before going into another Masters Series next week and the US Open in a couple week's time.'

In other first-round contests on a day featuring both humid sunshine and an afternoon rainstorm, Spanish 15th seed Tommy Robredo beat American qualifier Alex Bogomolov 6-4, 6-2 while John Isner of the US beat Canadian-born American Jesse Levine 6-3, 6-4.