Polansky battles, but falls 6-4, 7-6 to fourth-seeded Djokovic at Rogers Cup

MONTREAL - Peter Polanky put up a fight, but it wasn't enough for the Canadian to pull off an upset win over fourth-seeded Novak Djokovic.
Spurred by an enthusiastic centre court crowd, the Thornhill, Ont., native shot off to a 3-0 lead in the first set before Djokovic bounced back for a 6-4, 7-6 (6) victory in second-round play Tuesday at the US$3 million Rogers Cup at Uniprix Stadium.
The 21-year-old Polansky is ranked 225th in the world to Djokovic's fourth, but used a sharp serve and strong forehand shots to give his gifted opponent from Serbia a battle.
Leading 4-3 in the second set, Polansky let slip away a break point when he hit long ball during a rally, hit into the net and then saw Djokovic even the set with a perfectly placed drop shot.
Polansky held service twice more and forced a tiebreaker, where despite a double fault he fought off one match point and took it to 6-6 before Djokovic prevailed with a service winner.
Polansky - Canada's No. 2 player behind Frank Dancevic of Niagara Falls, Ont., - won a match at the Rogers Cup for the first time when he downed Bruno Agostinelli of Niagara Falls in the first round on Monday.
Later Tuesday, Frederic Niemeyer of Deauville, Que., was to take on world No. 1 Roger Federer, while surprise qualifier Milos Roanic of Thornhill, Ont., takes on Fernando Gonzalez of Bhile.
Earlier, Andy Murray had to shake off some rust to continue his pursuit of the No. 2 ranking in world tennis and Britain's top player got the job done nicely in 6-4, 6-2 victory over Jeremy Chardy of France.
He had not played since losing to Andy Roddick in the semifinals at Wimbledon in early July, but Murray was in control from the outset.
"I'm sure I feel better, now I've got through the first one, because you lose your rhythm a bit," said Murray, the third seed. "I didn't really have more than six or seven days off without playing a match for a long time.
"I've been doing well in most of the tournaments and yeah, it feels different. But once you get into the match and you play the tight points, you get used to it quickly."
Murray has won four tournaments this year and is off to the best start of his career with a 46-7 match record.
With Rafael Nadal struggling on sore knees, Murray is in position to overtake the Spanish ace for the No. 2 ranking - behind Federer - with a big performance this week. If he wins the tournament, he will be in the No. 2 spot. There are many other scenarios to do it, including if Murray reaches the final and Nadal loses in the semifinals.
"I've been asked about it a lot so it's impossible not to think about it, but when I'm playing my match it's the furthest thing from my mind," Murray said of the rankings.
Nadal was to play a doubles match Tuesday and won't play his first singles until Wednesday.
Chardy, ranked 36th, had a three-set win in the first round Monday over Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan. Murray, as one of the top eight seeds, had a bye to the second round.
Murray will next face the winner of a match between Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain and 13th-seeded Gael Monfils of France.
One seed fell, as No. 16 Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan.
Earlier Tuesday, Ferrero defeated Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 6-4 in a battle of former No. 1 players.
In other first round matches, Tommy Robredo of Spain defeated American Alex Bogomolov 6-4, 6-2; Fernando Verdasco beat fellow Madrid native Feliciano Lopez 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-1; Victor Hanescu of Romania beat Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-4, 6-3 and qualifier John Isner beat fellow American Jesse Levine 6-3, 6-4.