Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan was briefly tested by Frenchman Gilles Simon before advancing to the second round of the US$2.4 million ATP Tennis Masters Series in Toronto on Tuesday morning.

After trading long groundstroke rallies in the first set, Paradorn wore his opponent down and sealed off a 6-4 6-2 victory in the first round match which took one hour, 16 minutes.

For only the second time this year Paradorn survived a first round match in a Masters Series event. He had previously entered five Masters events and only managed to move past the first round in the Indian Wells meet, where he made it to the semi-final.

The Thai has a comfortable draw, although waiting for him in round two could be sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia or Belgium Xavier Malisse. His real threat will come in round four where he is likely to face Roger Federer.

Against the 52nd ranked Simon, Paradorn still committed many unforced errors but was saved by his groundstrokes. He fired off a series of powerful groundstrokes, running Simon around the court, but the fleet-footed Frenchman chased them all.

After saving several break points to hold at 4-3, it seemed Simon did not have much left in the tank. Paradorn held comfortably to level at 4-4 and broke easily to gain the lead at 5-4 after the Frenchman hit two shots long.

The Thai, at 40-15 on his serve, finished off the first set in style by blasting a forehand winner right on the line.

Simon tried to come back in the second set but he could not resist the Thai's power for more than four games. After 2-2, Paradorn dictated play from then on and never looked back as his opponent became very erratic.

Meanwhile, ailing Argentine and third seed David Nalbandian crashed out of the first round on Monday, routed by Italian Davide Sanguinetti.

Sanguinetti beat Nalbandian 6-1 6-2 and will next face either lucky loser Nicolas Mahut of France or Czech qualifier Jan Hernych.

"I had a headache, maybe a little bit of fever," said Nalbandian, who bowed out in less than an hour. "Didn't feel really good to try to push myself to play good.

"From last night, maybe I start feeling - I was sweating. I had a headache last night as well," he said. "Woke up, had the same thing. But I say I want to try, nothing to lose. I'm not going to feel worse than this. I tried, but nothing changed."

Nalbandian was joined on the sidelines by 10th-seeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

Baghdatis, the runner-up to Roger Federer at the Australian Open and playing for the first time since reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon, was surprised by France's Julien Benneteau 5-7 6-2 6-3.

This week's tournament at the Rexall Centre sees the return to action for the first time since the Wimbledon final of Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Two years ago, Federer won the title here with a victory over American Andy Roddick in the final.

Last year - with Federer absent - Nadal got the better of Andre Agassi in Montreal to win his first hard court title.

Paul Henri-Mathieu of France is first in the firing line for the top-seeded Federer, the Wimbledon champion who is 28-1 on hard courts this season.

Agencies, The Nation

TORONTO