Toronto Masters: Djokovic battles as Murray sails through

Toronto Wimbledon champions Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray warmed up their hardcourt games on Wednesday with victories in their opening matches at the Toronto ATP MastersNovak Djokovic PicAPPTIWorld number one Djokovic who beat Roger Federer in five sets in last months Wimbledon final needed almost two and threequarter hours to extend his winning run to 10 matches as he beat Frenchman Gael Monfils with the top seed reaching the third round after a 62 67 47 76 72 victory Britains 2013 Wimbledon winner Murray made light of an absence from the ATP Tour of over a month to defeat promising Aussie teenager Nick Kyrgios 62 62 in less than an hourDjokovic married last month was playing for the first time since his All England Club triumph I tried to take the positives from this long match obviously the fact that I stayed over two and a half hours on the court and I have not played an official hard court match since Miami finals in March Djokovic said That obviously helps to play a little bit more to feel the court to feel the conditionsIm not feeling tired Im not exhausted I havent played a tournament for four weeks I of course look forward to compete more The Serb did have to struggle with the flashy Monfils who put the Serbian under pressure with a break in the third set for a 31 lead The top seed got the break back a game later but showed his frustration as Monfils won a nineminute 11th game saving three break points to hold for 65Monfils was two points from completing the upset at 65 3030 but Djokovic held on to force the tiebreaker in which he seized a 52 lead and converted on his first match point with a forehand winner He goes through to a meeting with French 13th seed JoWilfried Tsonga who beat countryman Jeremy Chardy 76 86 64 I showed good stuff today I think I was happy said MonfilsThis can just motivate me to work harder Next time I will try to maybe be a bit further along and maybe beat him Djokovic is bidding to become the third player after Federer and Nadal to win at least 20 Masters 1000 titles He has claimed five of the last six he has contested Murrays work paying off Murray the eighth seed who won the Canadian title in 2009 and 2010 had been seen as a potential scalp for the dangerous Kyrgios since losing to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the Wimbledon quarterfinalsIn the interim the disappointed 27yearold Scot left for his training base in Miami to try and rediscover his best form which had eluded him since back surgery in September He also signed former top French WTA player Amelie Mauresmo to a longterm coaching contract after an experimental period through the grasscourt season I was just lacking a little bit Murray said But after Wimbledon I went over to Miami and I really trained like I used to for the first time since the surgery and I felt much betterMurray showed that his work was starting to pay off as he hammered Kyrgios who upset Rafael Nadal in the fourth round at Wimbledon Eighth seed Murray who has not won a title in the 13 months since lifting the Wimbledon trophy will next face 12th seed Richard Gasquet a winner over Ivo Karlovic 57 76 75 63 Another Frenchman Julien Benneteau moved into the thirdround as he defeated 11th seed Ernests Gulbis 76 74 63Spanish fifth seed David Ferrer beat Michael Russell 64 26 61 Sixth seed Milos Raonic fulfilled home hopes with his defeat of American Jack Sock 46 76 72 76 74 which took almost two and a half hours and ended with 16 aces for the winner Number seven Grigor Dimitrov stopped Donald Young 46 62 63 The 15th seed Marin Cilic came back to eliminate Tunisian Malek Jaziri 46 60 76 74 while South Africas Kevin Anderson beat Italian 16th seed Fabio Fognini 75 62