Lleyton Hewitt saved two match points in beating Robin Soderling 3-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4 in the first round of the Western and Southern Financial Group Masters on Tuesday. Hewitt, a two-time tournament runner-up, saved both match points in the second-set tiebreaker at 6-5 and 8-7 before winning it 10-8 then breaking the Swede in the first game of the last set and holding on. Soderling, seeded 12th, was joined on the sidelines by No. 10 Fernando Gonzalez and No. 11 Fernando Verdasco. Gonzalez retired because of a sore knee after losing the first set 6-4 to Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, while Verdasco was beaten by fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4). Other winners included Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, Jurgen Melzer of Austria, Chris Guccione of Australia and Andreas Seppi of Italy, whose reward for beating Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 was a second-round match with Rafael Nadal. Former world No. 1 Marat Safin eased past American Robby Ginepri 7-5, 7-6, while seeds Gilles Simon of France and Croatia's Marin Cilic also claimed first-round wins. Ninth seed Simon eased past American wildcard Wayne Odesnik 6-3, 6-2 and will now play Russian Igor Andreev, who beat Nicolas Kiefer of Germany 6-1, 7-5. Venus loses early again Venus Williams surprisingly lost to Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the Rogers Cup on Tuesday. Williams was playing in the tournament for the first time since she was a 17-year-old in 1997. She remained winless at the Rogers Cup in three visits. Williams controlled the first set but couldn't shake a determined Bondarenko, who chased down shot after shot at the Rexall Centre. Bondarenko broke Williams three times in the second set and once more in the third, in which she won 20 of 28 service points. “She played well,” Williams said. “She really started playing consistently. Unfortunately I made too many errors.” Earlier, former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic defeated Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the first round. Ivanovic will meet Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic. Safarova got past Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-4, 7-6 (3), and Russian qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva beat French qualifier Julie Coin 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (8). Also, Shahar Peer of Israel edged Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4) in just under three hours, Zheng Jie of China downed Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-3, 6-2, and Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia handled Sara Errani of Italy 6-4, 6-2. Russian Maria Sharapova signaled she might be close to a return to top form by dismissing 10th seeded Nadia Petrova 6-3, 6-4 in the first round Monday. It was rough opening day for the French on the Canadian hardcourts with 13th seed Marion Bartoli and 15th seed Amelie Mauresmo both bowing out. Bartoli again made an early exit losing 6-4, 6-3 to Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko. Twice champion Mauresm displayed plenty of rust in falling 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 to 27th ranked Italian Francesca Schiavone. Fourteenth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland was the only seeded player to survive the opening day after she stopped Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6
