Tuesday, August 8 2006 15:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Toronto: Ailing Argentinian third seed David Nalbandian crashed out of the first round of the US$2.45 million ATP Masters Series here yesterday (Aug 7, 2006), routed by Italian Davide Sanguinetti.

Sanguinetti beat Nalbandian 6-1, 6-2 and will next face either lucky loser Nicolas Mahut of France or Czech qualifier Jan Hernych.

"I had a headache, maybe a little bit of fever," said Nalbandian, who bowed out in less than an hour.

"Didn't feel really good to try to push myself to play good," he said.

"From last night, maybe I start feeling I was sweating. I had a headache last night as well," he said.

"Woke up, had the same thing. But I say I want to try, nothing to lose. I'm not going to feel worse than this. I tried, but nothing changed," he said.

This week's tournament at the Rexall Centre sees the return to action for the first time since the Wimbledon final of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Two years ago, Federer won the title here with a victory over American Andy Roddick in the final.

Last year with Federer absentNadal got the better of Andre Agassi in Montreal to win his first hardcourt title.

Paul Henri-Mathieu of France is first in the firing line for the top-seeded Federer, the Wimbledon champion who is 28-1 on hard courts this season.

Other potential opponents for the Swiss superstar include 16th-seeded Tommy Haas of Germany, who won in Los Angeles two weeks ago, sixth-seeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, who recently won in Sopot, Poland, and former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, seeded 11th.

The second-seeded Nadal begins his defense against Olympic champion Nicolas Massu of Chile and could go on to face 13th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych - who won their last encounter in Cincinnati.

Berdych advanced with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Canadian wildcard Daniel Nestor.

With both Roddick and Agassi absent this year, James Blake is the top American.

The fifth-seeded Blake was to take on Canadian wildcard Philip Bester on Monday night. Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, runner-up to Federer at the Australian Open and a semi-finalist at Wimbledon, was also slated for action Monday night, against France's Julien Benneteau.

Blake will be looking to bounce back from last week's loss to Russian Marat Safin in Washington.

In early matches Monday, fourth-seeded Croatian Ivan Ljubicic defeated Nicolas Almagro of Spain 7-5, 6-1.

Chilean 15th seed Fernando Gonzalez beat Sweden's Robin Soderling 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.