Toronto, July 24:

Roger Federer’s No 1 ranking slid into the danger zone as he suffered an opening-match loss to Gilles Simon 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the Toronto Masters on Wednesday.

After starting 2008 with a lead of 1,445 points over Rafael Nadal, an off-the-boil season which now counts 10 defeats in 53 matches has Federer facing the possibility of losing the top spot he has held for 234 weeks since 2004. While Nadal cannot take over the top spot even with a title here, the pressure is now huge on 12-time Grand Slam champion.

Nadal beat Jesse Levine 6-4, 6-2 and next plays Russian Igor Andreev, who upset 16th seed Tomas Berdych 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Four other seeds advanced with number four Nikolay Davydenko

putting out German Tommy Haas 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) and David Ferrer beating American Robby Ginepri 6-4, 6-4. Seventh seed James Blake overhauled Swede Jonas Bjorkman 1-6, 6-1, 6-2 and Richard Gasquet earned a win for France over Andrey Kudryavtsev 7-5, 6-3.

Jankovic thru

LOS ANGELES: Serbian top seed Jelena Jankovic defeated American Vania King 7-5, 6-2 to advance in a WTA hardcourt tournament on Wednesday.

Russian fourth seed Dinara Safina ousted China’s Peng Shuai 6-2, 6-2 while Japan’s Ai Sugiyama upset seventh seed Patty Schnyder 6-4, 7-5 and will next face Italy’s Flavia Pennetta, a 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 winner over Austrian Tamira Paszek.

Australian Samantha Stosur ousted Russia’s Regina Kulikova 7-6, 7-5 and next faces Victoria Azarenka, who ousted Taiwan’s Chan-Yung-Jan 6-1, 6-3. British Melanie South defeated Czech Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-2 and will next face China’s Yuan Meng, who ousted India’s Sania Mirza 6-4, 6-3.