Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland hits a return during her match against Mona Barthel of Germany in Montreal Thursday. — Reuters MONTREAL — Agnieszka Radwanska's hope of claiming the world's top ranking ahead of the US Open remains alive after she survived a testing first match in the Montreal Cup Thursday. The Pole, who is seeded second in the Aug. 4-13 tournament, will replace Victoria Azarenka as World No. 1 if she wins the $2 million event and the reigning Australian Open champion fails to reach the quarterfinals. Radwanska, who was stretched all the way by German Mona Barthel on a day of upsets, came from a break down in the final set to win 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5). At least Radwanska, who plays Chanelle Scheepers in the third-round, completed her match on a day marred by rain. Azarenka will be forced to wait until Friday at the earliest to finish her match against Tamira Paszek after it was postponed Thursday night due to rain. The second round encounter is tied at 3-all in the opening set. Ana Ivanovic had a humbling start to her North American hard court campaign as the former world No. 1 failed to win a game when thrashed in just 44 minutes by Italian Roberta Vinci. “I can't remember last time I had a match like this, you know, maybe not since I was a junior,” the 24-year-old Serbian, who won this event in 2006, told reporters. “It's obviously tough, you know, but I just want to try and put it behind me and try to forget about this because that's the only thing you can do.” Her compatriot and 13th seed Jelena Jankovic, another former world No. 1, fell for the first time in five meetings to Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-2, 6-3. American Varvara Lepchenko upset 12th seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 6-4 in a rain-interrupted match and will play either Caroline Wozniacki or Kiki Bertens Friday. Wozniacki, the 7th seed, leads 7-5, 4-0 in the match still to be completed. China's Li Na, the 10th seed, ended the hopes of Wozniak's doubles partner and fellow Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-4, 6-4 just before rain ended play for the day. She said the conditions, which are expected to continue Friday, made it difficult for all the players. Fifteenth seeded Sabine Lisicki of Germany needed treatment from the trainer during her 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 loss to Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro. Ninth seed Marion Bartoli, who advanced Thursday by beating China's Peng Shuai 6-1, 6-3, opens play Friday against former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova. Reigning US Open champion Sam Stosur faces 16th seed Lucie Safarova on the second stadium court. Murray withdraws In Toronto, not even Novak Djokovic's attempt at drying off centre court could salvage play at the rain-hit Toronto Masters Thursday as singles play was washed out, while Andy Murray became the latest big name to withdraw. Top seed Djokovic, the defending champion and world No. 2, was among those set to play Thursday but his last 16 match against American Sam Querrey was wiped out along with the other seven singles matches on the schedule. Djokovic, however, was unruffled by the rain as he walked onto centre court shortly after his 7 P.M. (2300 GMT) match was set to begin and started playing with a squeegee before hitting a few balls while holding an umbrella in his left hand. With more rain forecast for Friday and possibly into the weekend, tournament organizers could be left scrambling to get matches played in time for Sunday's scheduled final. Murray, fresh from his emotional Olympic triumph Sunday, not so surprisingly pulled out of the tournament with a knee injury a day after calling a medical timeout during which he received about five minutes of treatment. Murray, twice a champion in Canada, will hope to be fit for a title defense starting next week in Cincinnati, the last major tune-up before the August 27 start of the US Open. “I decided this morning,” said Murray. “It was a bit sore yesterday. I came in today, saw the physios, they did some work on it, and it's still a bit sore. I did a little warmup on the bike to try it out and it was still sore. I spoke with the guys and decided the best thing was to rest.” — Agencies
