Wednesday, 8 August 2012:

American Mardy Fish advanced to the third round of the Rogers Cup tennis tournament on Tuesday with a straight-sets thumping of Australian Matthew Ebden in Montreal.

The No.11 seed accounted for Ebden 6-2 6-0 at the joint ATP-WTA event and fellow American Sam Querrey ousted Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-3 6-2.

In other matches, Czech Radek Stepanek upset Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-3 6-1, former world No.2 German Tommy Haas stopped David Nalbandian of Argentina 6-2 6-7 (11-13) 6-3, Russian Mikhail Youzhny held off Kevin Anderson of South Africa 6-1 7-6 (7-3) and Juan Monaco of Argentina outlasted Vasek Pospisil of Canada 7-5 6-4.

Canada lost a second player in as many days as Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan beat Frank Dancevic 6-3 7-5 as the wildcard went down in his fifth ATP match in a row dating back to last March in Miami.

Marcelo Granollers of Spain defeated Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine 4-6 6-4 6-3.

In women's action, Roberta Vinci of Italy overcame a 5-2 third-set deficit to defeat Yanina Wickmayer 6-2 3-6 7-5. She advanced to play 11th-seeded Ana Ivanovic, the 2006 winner.

Ekaterina Makarova of Russia handled Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-4 6-2 and Austria's Tamira Paszek defeated Julia Goerges of Germany 6-2 6-1.

Novak Djokovic began the post-Olympic switch from Wimbledon grass to North American hardcourt on Tuesday, with the Serb top seed admitting he's unsure how well he will compete this week in Toronto.

The world No.2, who left the London Games without a medal, will have had a day to acclimatise before starting his title defence in the second round against Australian Bernard Tomic after receiving a first-round bye.

"The transition from grasscourt to hardcourt is going to be very difficult because we have very little time, only a few days," Djokovic said.

Tomic ended a recent loss streak with his first-round win in Canada and Djokovic admitted that his opponent - also from a Balkan background - will be a tough ask as a starter.

"I've practised with him many, many times. This will be our first encounter on hardcourt. Obviously, with his style of game, he prefers a bit faster surfaces and plays a lot of flat shots," said the Serb.

"He has a lot of variety, a lot of talent in his game," he said of the No.49, the only teenager in the ATP top 50.

"He comes up with some shots that are really unexpected, so he can be very dangerous."

AAP