World No. 1 Novak Djokovic partnered with fellow Serbian Nenad Zimonjic in doubles at the Rogers Cup. The duo began their bid on Tuesday in Toronto, but fell to home favourites Philip Bester and Adil Shamasdin. The Canadians won 7-5, 4-6, 10-2.

”It’s an exciting match-up, kind of like a popcorn match,” said Bester. “At the end of the day, I was also excited to go out there with Adil and I knew that we had enough skill and enough game to beat these guys. That’s what happened today, so I couldn’t be happier.”

“I thought we served really smart and tried to keep it away from their strengths,” added Shamasdin. “Going into a match like this we are focused on what we are doing on our end, and we are not really kind of worried about what they’re going to do.”

Bester/Shamasdin saved seven of the eight break points they faced to beat Djokovic/Zimonjic in 82 minutes and reach the second round. They next face seventh seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram.

Third seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo will open their campaign in Toronto against Croat tandem Marin Cilic and Marin Draganja, who fired six aces and saved the one break point they faced to beat Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 6-4. 

John Isner and NextGen star Alexander Zverev defeated Robert Lindstedt and Sam Querrey 7-6(4), 6-3 to set a second-round meeting with fifth seeds Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau. Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock beat Gilles Muller and Benoit Paire 6-4, 6-2 in 53 minutes to set a second-round clash with sixth seeds Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil.

Australian-Serbian duo Bernard Tomic and Viktor Troicki had few difficulties seeing off the Canadian wild card pairing of Felix Auger Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov. Tomic and Troicki won 89 per cent of first-serve points and were never broken. They next meet No. 2 seed Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.

Fifth seed Tomas Berdych rallied from a set down on Tuesday at the Rogers Cup to move into the third round over #NextGen star Borna Coric, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

The Croatian broke Berdych to start the match and never gave his opponent a chance to return the favour, dropping just four points on serve throughout the opening set. But Berdych responded strongly by going on a five-game run in the second set, breaking Coric twice to force a deciding set.

Little separated the pair in the final set, but it was Berdych who grabbed the lone break of serve to lead 2-1. He denied Coric any break point opportunities throughout the set and served out the contest on his first try, improving his record in their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry to 3-0.

Next up for Berdych is the winner of the match between ninth seed John Isner and qualifier Ryan Harrison. Berdych has never played Harrison, but leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry with Isner by 6-2 and has won their past five matches.

Qualifier Radek Stepanek continued to turn back the clock at age 37 with a convincing first-round win over No. 14 seed Benoit Paire, 6-1, 6-3. Stepanek, ranked No. 129 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, saved all six break points against him during the match. The victory gave the Czech player just his second Top 30 win since June 2014. Next up for Stepanek is local wild card Peter Polansky.