Hewitt wins battle of former greats to advance over Ferrero

The battle of unseeded former number one players illustrated just how strong the draw is at the first big event in the run-up to the US Open.

 Hewitt is now struggling to get back into the top 20 and currently stands 21st while Ferrero is 17th.

 The Australian won a title in Las Vegas on hardcourt, then lost in Indian Wells before going home injured for two months.

 Hewitt is making a comeback without the presence of new coach Tony Roche, who is at home in Sydney awaiting the birth of a grandchild.

 Hewitt now leads Ferrero 6-3 in their career series with Hewitt winning their last meeting, the 2004 Rotterdam final.

 Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal head the all-star list in a field which includes all of the world's top 20. The leading eight seeds benefit from byes into the second round.

 Czech tenth seed Tomas Berdych became the first upset victim, losing 6-4, 7-5 to charged-up Dutch qualifier Robin Haase.

 Haase, ranked 103, is playing for the fifth consecutive week. After losing to Marat Safin last Thursday in Washington, he came directly to Montreal to play qualifiers.

 So great was the accumulated exhaustion factor that Haase was living on hope.

 "Let's hope I can qualify," he said. "I couldn't move that well. Luckily there are some good physiotherapists here, so they helped me.

 The challenger fired 11 aces and broke twice on the way to victory in 90 minutes.

 Berdych weighed in on the suspicious pullout last week by number five Nikolay Davydenko in Poland, which has sparked an ATP probe into possible match fixing.

 The Betfair online agency suspended payouts on a second-round match which the Russian lost as he quit with a foot injury in the third set against Martin Vassallo-Arguello after around seven million dollars in bets swung to the Argentine after Davydenko won the opening set.

 Berdych recalled an eye-opening talk given to ATP players last March at a meeting in Miami. 

   "I think this is much worse ... than the doping," he said. "Imagine if you have a situation that they come to you and they give you the offer with money and tell you: 'If you lose this match, you gonna get whatever.'"

   "You say, Okay, right, this is a bad tournament. It happens once, and they're gonna come again another tournament and you're going to say, 'No, I don't want to do it, I'm going to play,' he said.

 "Then the problem starts."

   After play was delayed two hours due to rain, Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka earned an early victory over Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

 Spanish 16th seed David Ferrer beat Ernests Gulbisof Latvia 6-2, 6-1.