Roger Federer eased back into action for the first time since winning his eighth Wimbledon title last month as he also reached the third round with a dominant victory, at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada. The Swiss star who celebrated his 36th birthday on Tuesday, beat Peter Polansky of Canada 6-2, 6-1, in just 53 minutes.
Nadal edged closer to becoming the world number one at the top of the ATP rankings if he progresses to the semi-finals. The top seed dismantled his 20-year-old opponent, Borna Coric of Croatia 6-1,6-2 to reach the last 16. Canadian Milos Raonic suffered an early exit, the sixth seed losing 6-4, 6-4 to Adrian Mannarino, but 18-year-old wild card Denis Shapovalov gave the home crowd something to cheer.
Meanwhile, Shapovalov, the 143rd seed in the world, upset former US Open champion, Juan Martin del Potro a 6-3, 7-6 (4) to set up a clash with Nadal on Thursday.
Fourth seed Alexander Zverev saved three match points - one of them after a 49-shot rally - before beating Richard Gasquet 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (3).
The other seeded casualties on Wednesday were Pablo Carreno Busta and Jack Sock, who lost to Kevin Anderson and David Ferrer respectively. Grigor Dimitrov saw off Mischa Zverev in three sets while Nick Kyrgios dropped just five games in his victory against Paolo Lorenzi.
