Canadian Levine advances to second round at Rogers Cup with win over Malisse

MONTREAL – Canadian wildcard Jesse Levine advanced to the second round of the Rogers Cup with a win over Belgium’s Xavier Malisse on Monday night.

Levine, who will next face eight-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal, is one of five Canadians remaining in the main draw after his 6-4, 7-6 (3) win over Malisse.

Born in Nepean, Ont., Levine moved to Florida in his teens and played as an American until recently.

“It’s nice to play in front of a home crowd,” said Levine, who began playing as a Canadian in December. “Hopefully they’ll get behind me. I’ll do the best I can and we’ll see what happens.”

Peter Polansky became the first Canadian to fall out of the men’s tournament.

Polansky, who qualified over the weekend, won the opening set of his centre-court match against ninth-seed Kei Nishikori of Japan before an enthusiastic crowd at Uniprix Stadium, but ultimately fell, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in just over two hours.

Germany’s Florian Mayer defeated Bernard Tomic of Australia, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3. Mayer will face top-seeded Novak Djokovic in the second round.

Milos Raonic, who is seeded 11th, will face France’s Jeremy Chardy in one of four singles matches involving Canadians on Tuesday.

Vasek Pospisil takes on John Isner, the lone American in the main draw. Fellow Canadian wild-cards Frank Dancevic and Filip Peliwo will also play their first-round matches. Dancevic faces Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun and Peliwo takes on Jarko Nieminen of Finland.

The six Canadians in the main draw were the most since 1987 when there were seven, including current Davis Cup captain Martin Laurendeau and Stephane Bonneau, one of four Quebec tennis players inducted into the Rogers Cup Hall of Fame prior to the evening’s matches.

Pospisil won the Odlum Brown VanOpen final on Sunday. The 23-year-old Vancouver native fought off three match-point opportunities against Britain’s Daniel Evans and rallied from a 1-4 deficit in the final set for a 6-0, 1-6, 7-5 win.

The hard-serving Isner also had a long week, losing to Juan Martin del Potro in Sunday’s Citi Open final in Washington, D.C.

Pospisil admitted he had mixed feelings about opening against the 6-foot-9 Isner.

“He’s also confident,” Pospisil said. “Either way it’s going to be extremely tough when you have a server like that, a dangerous player.”