BC-TEN–Toronto,0316

Federer advances at Tennis Masters

TORONTO (AP) – Top-seeded Roger Federer beat Morocco’s Hicham Arazi 6-3, 7-5 Wednesday to advance to the second round of the $2.5 million Masters Canada tournament.

Federer won the first set Tuesday night before play was suspended due to rain.

American Vince Spadea beat 19-year-old Canadian Frank Dancevic 6-1, 6-4 in a first-round match at the Rexall Centre. Dancevic, ranked No. 225, never found his rhythm against the 21st-ranked Spadea.

Dancevic played despite being bothered by whiplash and a sore back, injuries sustained in a car accident Sunday night in California. Dancevic said the injuries affected his serve and forehand throughout the match, but he never considered withdrawing.

“Canada doesn’t have many opportunities like this and I tried to gut it out,” Dancevic said. “It started to loosen up near the end of the match but, I felt it quite a bit.

“It wasn’t great.”

Spadea controlled the first set, using his solid baseline game and deft touch to move Dancevic around the court. Dancevic looked more comfortable in the second set and had three break points trailing 2-1, but couldn’t take advantage.

“Vince came out and played a great match,” Dancevic said. “He served well, he didn’t miss much.

Two seeded players lost early matches.

Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez defeated No. 8 Rainer Schuettler 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, while Sweden’s Thomas Johansson beat 13th-seeded Nicolas Massu 6-4, 6-4.

Massu was originally scheduled to face American Taylor Dent in first-round play, but Dent withdrew Tuesday due to a calf injury and was replaced by Johansson, the 99 Canadian Masters winner and 2002 Australian Open champion.

Second-seeded American Andy Roddick, the defending champion. was scheduled to play qualifier Julien Benneteau on Wednesday night.

AP-ES-07-28-04 1439EDT