MONTREAL - Frank Dancevic certainly has a flair for the dramatic.
The 22 year-old native of Niagara Falls, Ont., advanced to the third round of the US$2.45 million Rogers Cup on Wednesday with a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 win over American qualifier Wayne Odesnik.
Dancevic completed the victory with his 19th ace of the match, the same way he finished his first round win over Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro late Monday night.
''It's better than playing a long game,'' Dancevic said.
''I'd rather just serve and end it.''
Odesnik earned the second round date with Dancevic because he knocked out 11th seed Ivan Ljubicic in the first round. Now, the lone remaining Canadian in the singles draw will face a third straight unseeded player in Fernando Verdasco of Spain, who knocked out the No. 8 seed Richard Gasquet of France earlier on Wednesday.
''I guess I feel lucky,'' Dancevic said. ''But anyone who is in the third round and who beat a seeded player is playing just as well as the seeds.''
Toronto's Daniel Nestor - playing with partner Mark Knowles of the Bahamas - registered his 600th career doubles victory in a 6-3, 6-4 second round win over Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic and Nicolas Kiefer of Germany.
Tennis Canada presented Nestor with a bottle of champagne on centre court as ball boys and girls held letters that spelled out ''Congratulations Daniel 600'' along the baseline.
Also advancing Wednesday was fourth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko, playing his first match since the ATP launched a probe into suspicious betting for one of his matches last week at the Poland Open.
Top seed Roger Federer of Switzerland celebrated his 26th birthday with a 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3) win over the towering, big serving Ivo Karlovic of Croatia. The crowd suddenly began singing Happy Birthday late in the first set to mark the occasion, which made Federer's task a little more difficult.
''I enjoy it, of course,'' Federer said. ''At the same time you're like, I'm struggling to get a ball back against this guy and they're singing happy birthday.
Are they watching the same match as me?''
Fifth-seeded Andy Roddick of the U.S. advanced with a 6-1, 7-6 (5) victory over France's Arnaud Clement and 14th seed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia won 6-4, 6-4 over Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, but it was otherwise a difficult day for the seeded players.
The tournament's seventh-seed Tommy Robredo of Spain lost 6-2, 6-4 to Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, and 13th seed Andy Murray of Britain - playing his first tournament since suffering a wrist injury three months ago - fell to Italian qualifier Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-2.
Ninth-seeded James Blake of the U.S. had to retire before his match with Australia's Lleyton Hewitt with an abdominal strain, and Argentina's David Nalbandian knocked off 16th seed David Ferrer of Spain 7-6 (4), 6-1.
Dancevic moves to third round with win over Odesnik, Nestor gets landmark win
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Published on
August 9, 2007
- Published on January 4, 2010
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