Tennis: Polansky fires home crowd with Toronto Masters win

Canadian wildcard Peter Polansky provided the opening-day fireworks at the Toronto Masters with a 7-6, 6-4 upset over 13th seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer in front of an appreciative home crowd.

Polansky, ranked 207, delivered and became the first Canadian to beat a top-15 opponent on a home court since 2003 when Simon Larose stunned Gustavo Kuerten.

Russia 12th seed Mikhail Youzhny survived two lengthy rain delays and a traffic jam to outlast Frenchman Gilles Simon and advance with a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

The early match began 30 minutes late with Simon caught in traffic, and it finished nearly eight hours later. Down a set but up 4-1 in second when rain halted play a second time for five hours, Simon returned to the court and lost five straight games to end a dreary afternoon.

It was a bad day all around for the French as Richard Gasquet joined Simon at the exit after a 7-5, 6-1 loss to Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela advanced with a tidy 6-0, 6-3 win over Colombian Alejandro Falla and earned a second-round meeting with world No.?3 and twice Canadian champion Roger Federer of Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Andy Murray and Ross Hutchins lost in straight sets to Philipp Kohlschreiber and Gael Monfils in the first round of the men's doubles.

The British pair went down 6-3, 6-2 and Murray will begin the defence of his singles title against Xavier Malisse or Michael Berrer tomorrow afternoon, local time.