JOIN USRoger Federer launched his North American hard court campaign and bid for an 80th career title in impressive style blowing past Canadian Peter Polansky 6-2, 6-0 on Tuesday and into the third round of the Rogers Cup.
Seeing his first action since an epic five set loss to world number one Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final, Federer lacked sharpness at times but still barely worked up a good sweat on a balmy summer evening needing just 52 minutes to dispose of the Canadian wild card.
Federer, who will celebrate his 33rd birthday on Friday, has reached the final four times winning the title twice, and a Canadian hat-trick would give the second seeded Swiss a milestone 80th career title.
The 17-time Grand Slam winner sits third on the all-time title list behind only Ivan Lendl (94) and Jimmy Connors (109).
Third seed Stan Wawrinka made it a perfect evening for the Swiss as he rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) win over determined French qualifier Benoit Paire.
It was, however, a terrible day for the local contingent with all four home grown players seeing action knocked out.
Vasek Pospisil, a semifinalist in Canada a year ago who was playing his first match since losing Sunday's Citi Open final in Washington, fell 7-5, 7-5 to 12th seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet.
Joining Pospisil and Polansky at the exit were compatriots Frank Dancevic, a 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 loser to American Donald Young and Brayden Schnur, who dropped a 6-3, 6-3 decision to Italy's Andreas Seppi.
Latvian 11th seed Ernest Gulbis had smooth passage on another stormy day at the Rexall Tennis Centre easing past Portugal's Joao Sousa 6-3, 6-4 while Italian 16th seed Fabio Fognini strolled past Russian Mikhail Youzhny 6-2, 6-4.
Australian teenager Nick Kyrgios claimed another career first with an opening round 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 decision over Colombia's Santiago Giraldo to set up a second round meeting with twice Grand Slam winner Andy Murray.
Power outage
In the women’s section, home favourite Eugenie Bouchard suffered a second round defeat to American qualifier Shelby Rogers.
The 20-year-old Bouchard, playing for the first time since losing in the Wimbledon final to Petra Kvitova last month, faltered badly in front of her native Montreal crowd.
Her 6-0, 2-6, 6-0 loss came after the event suffered a seven-hour power outage that shut down scoreboards and umpires' microphones.
Serena Williams had the day off but her older sister Venus fought her way to a three-set victory against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 despite the electrical issues.
In other matches, Caroline Wozniacki made easy work of Daniel Hantuchova in a 6-1, 6-1 triumph, while third-seed Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova 6-4, 6-4 and ninth-seed Ana Ivanovic routed Timea Bacsinszky 6-1, 6-2.