Dodig shocks Nadal in Montreal

Tennis : Croatian Ivan Dodig claimed the scalp of world number two Rafael Nadal in the second round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal…

Tennis: Croatian Ivan Dodig claimed the scalp of world number two Rafael Nadal in the second round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal.

The Spaniard, who relinquished his Wimbledon title and top ranking to Novak Djokovic last month, looked in charge in his first match since the final in south-west London when he took a one-sided opening set against Dodig.

But world number 41 Dodig fought back to take the next two on tie-breaks, twice coming from a break of serve behind in the deciding set, to triumph 1-6 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (7/5) for the most impressive win of his career.

"This is the biggest win of my career, of my life," said an excited Dodig. "I enjoyed it so much. I was fighting hard for every point. In the end I managed, I'm really happy."

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The 26-year-old fired 19 aces past Nadal, to seven by the Spaniard, as he avenged his straight-sets defeat on clay in the Barcelona semi-finals earlier this season.

"Honestly, I didn't feel I played bad but I can't say I played well. In the decisive moments, I didn't play well, that's the truth," said Nadal. "He played very well, very aggressive. He didn't feel the pressure in the important moments."

While Nadal went out, Roger Federer and Djokovic came through their opening tests, having been handed first-round byes.

Federer will get the chance to take revenge over his Wimbledon conqueror Jo-Wilfried Tsonga after the pair advanced to a meeting in the third round.

Tsonga came from two sets down to stun Federer at the All England Club and also recovered a big deficit to beat the Swiss star the last time they met in Montreal two years ago.

Federer defeated Canadian wild card Vasek Pospisil 7-5 6-3 in an hour and 17 minutes, while Tsonga took the same time to beat another Wimbledon star, Australian Bernard Tomic, 6-3 7-6 (7/1).

Federer told atptour.com: "I will not think about that Wimbledon match as much as I might think about the match we had here two years ago. Both matches were, so to speak, not normal matches."

Top seed Djokovic moved through to the third round with a 7-5 6-1 win over Nikolay Davydenko although the score did not reflect serving problems which saw the world number one broken four times.

"Being No. 1 is a big responsibility, not just on the court but off the court as well," Djokovic said. "Just trying to handle it in the best possible way, but on the other side trying to keep my life very simple, the way it was before. I needed some rhythm, and he didn't give me any. I got back into the match. When I needed to use my chance, I did. Then, you know, (the) second set was much more comfortable for me."

Fifth seed Gael Monfils beat American qualifier Alex Bogomolov Jr 6-2 7-6 (7/5) while there were also wins for seventh seed Tomas Berdych, eighth seed Nicolas Almagro, plus Richard Gasquet, Stanislas Wawrinka and Ivo Karlovic.

Dodig's fellow Croatian Marin Cilic caused a minor upset by beating the Argentinian 16th seed, Juan Martin Del Potro, 6-3 6-4.

Serbian 12th seed Viktor Troicki marched on, beating American John Isner 6-4 3-6 6-2.

American Mardy Fish won the day's final match, crushing Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-2 6-3.