Rafter back on song

Rafter made comfortable progress in Montreal

Pat Rafter had little trouble overcoming Magnus Norman in straight sets in the second round of the Canadian Masters in Montreal.

The Australian came though 6-1 7-6 (7-2) as he bids to put the disappointment of Wimbledon behind him and concentrate on the US Open at the end of August.

Norman has yet to win a tournament this year and, returning after an injury lay-off, was no match for Rafter.

I didn't really want to practice, but I knew I'd have to hit some before I came here

  Patrick Rafter

The former US Open champion admitted afterwards that it had been difficult to recover from the five-set defeat to Goran Ivanisevic in last month's Wimbledon final.

"For a few days I was pretty flat," said Rafter. "I really didn't want to see anyone. I would have had a really hard time had I gone back to Australia, I'm glad I didn't.

"I stayed inside and didn't go outside much. I stuck with my close friends and that was that. I did a lot of water skiing, went wake-boarding, played soccer and hit some tennis balls last week.

"I didn't really want to practice, but I knew I'd have to hit some before I came here."

Andy Roddick demonstrated again why he is so highly rated, battling hard to beat former French Open champion and number 14 seed Carlos Moya of Spain.

Roddick held his nerve in the final set to win 6-3 5-7 7-5 and set up a third round clash with top seed Gustavo Kuerten, who had little trouble beating Argentina's Gaston Gaudio 6-1 6-4.

Roddick could face Kuerten next

American Jan-Michael Gambill had a straightforward 6-3 7-6 (9-7) win over Israel's Noam Behr while fourth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain beat Nicolas Lapentti 6-3 6-3.

Earlier, Ivan Ljubicic failed to repeat the form that took him past Andre Agassi in the previous round, going down 7-6 6-4 to Tommy Haas.

Arnaud Clement, the 10th seed from France, breezed past Max Mirnyi 6-1 6-2 while Jerome Golmard defeated 13th seed Thomas Johansson.

Also through are Fabrice Santoro, Nicolas Escude, Andrei Pavel and American veteran Todd Martin.