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Andy Roddick became the first man into the third round of Toronto Masters with a 6-1 6-7 (6) 6-3 victory over Frenchman Nicolas Mahut.

The two players met in an epic final at Queen's Club in 2007 that Roddick won in three sets after saving a match point in the second set.

However, this was a much more dominant victory for Roddick on his favourite hard court surface, even though he again needed three sets to win the contest.

The sixth seeded American held his serve throughout the match and despite being edged out in the second set tie-break, he always looked the better player, with aces number 17 and 18 closing out the match.

"I thought I moved well and most importantly I felt well physically," said Roddick, who has been hampered by a sore right shoulder.

"Physically I feel good for the first time since our Davis Cup tie in April (against France).

"Hopefully my problems are behind me and I can play good tennis again.

"I've played four matches in three months but I felt good today."

It was the first match in four weeks for Roddick since his early exit at Wimbledon. He will now play Marin Cilic or Tommy Robredo in the third round with the young Croat having booked his place in the second round with a 6-3 4-6 6-3 victory over Lukas Dlouhy.

Defending champion Novak Djokovic returned to tennis for the first time since Wimbledon and broke Canadian hearts with a 6-4, 6-4 second-round win over local Frank Dancevic.

The Serbian third seed and the Canadian of Serb heritage fired up their serves from the start, with Djokovic finding his precision return game to make the difference in his first visit to Toronto.

"I knew I was playing the home player, a big hope," said the Australian Open champion. "I've known Frank a long time and he always plays well here.

"I did what I needed to win, so I'm happy.

Andy Murray will face Tommy Johansson in the second round after the veteran Swede - who was 1999 winner of this event - beat Andrey Golubev 7-6 (4) 6-1 in his first round match.

Frenchman Gilles Simon maintained his championship momentum from Indianapolis as he romped to a 6-1 6-3 win over American teenaged qualifier Donald Young 6-1 6-3.

German Tommy Haas, a quarter-finalist last week at the Indianapolis event where he ended with a loss to eventual champion Simon, was another early winner.

The 30-year-old German beat Spain's Carlos Moya 6-3 6-2.

Simon rolled through in less than an hour in the threatening conditions a day after arriving from Indianapolis and the scene of his fourth career title, which he won over Dmitry Tursunov.

The 23-year-old will face a huge test on Wednesday as he plays against Roger Federer, with the Swiss determined to begin regaining the superiority that slipped when he was beaten in the Wimbledon final by Rafael Nadal.

Simon broke Young five times in the brief affair to win his sixth match in a row.

"I just hope I can take my chances against Roger," said the winner. "I've never played him before and of course he is the favourite."

Organisers are facing a bleak forecast this week with bad weather predicted through Wednesday and perhaps beyond.

2002 champion Guillermo Canas was knocked out in the first round as he lost 10 of the last 11 games in a 7-5 6-1 defeat to Robert Soderling.

There were also comfortable wins for 16th seed Tomas Berdych and qualifier Jesse Levine over Jarkko Nieminen and local wild card Peter Polansky respectively.

In the doubles, Andy and Jamie Murray progressed to the second round at the expense of Richard Gasquet and Mahut, courtesy of a 7-6(4) 6-2 victory.

Sean Fay & / AFP