Montreal, August 11:

Rafael Nadal made up for lost time on a day of rain interruptions, racing to a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Brazilian Ricardo Mello for a third-round place at the $2.2 million Montreal Masters. The top-seeded teenager will have only hours to recover before his next match against Sebastien Grosjean, who endured a delay of his own before taming fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet 7-6, 6-3. Nadal took to the court on Wednesday night nearly three hours after his original start time as play was interrupted several times on a trying day for officials. The French Open champion has won eight titles on clay this season but is in the hunt for his first ever on hard court. His quick victory marked his 60th of the season as he has won 12 matches in a row since a second-round Wimbledon defeat. His 60th win made Nadal the first teenager to achieve the mark in one season since 2000, when Lleyton Hewitt went 61-19, but the Spaniard from Mallorca still has just under half the season to add to his total. Fourth seed Andre Agassi, number 5 Nikolay Davydenko and sixth-seeded Gaston Gaudio all advanced to the final 16 in Montreal with Agassi’s win one of the day’s highlights.

The veteran squeezed out a 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 win in a battle of tennis greybeards as the 35-year-old legend beat 33-year-old Swede Jonas Bjorkman for the fifth consecutive time. He next faces German Nicolas Kiefer, a 2004 semi-finalist, who defeated Taylor Dent 6-4, 6-4. Mario Ancic and Greg Rusedski set up a first meeting on the ATP as both fought through three-set battles. Ancic from Croatia, a 2004 Wimbledon semi-finalist, overcame qualifier Florent Serra 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 after the Frenchman advanced into the second round when Lleyton Hewitt quit their match with illness after seven games. Britain’s Rusedski defeated Max Mirnyi in a battle of serves 4-6, 6-4, 7-6. Paul-Henri Mathieu followed up on his first-round knockout of Andy Roddick, ousting French compatriot Arnaud Clement 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.