World number one Nadal, who kicked off the
evening session a little over an hour after its original start
time, had some issues with his serve later in the match but
still needed only 74 minutes to secure his spot in the third
round.
Nadal came out firing a dazzling array of shots that had Paire
racing around the blue hard court from the outset and even
desperately launching his racquet on one occasion in a failed
attempt at a return that gave the Spaniard a 5-2 lead.
Nadal was made to work harder in the second where the players
exchanged breaks over six consecutive games before the world
number one finally held in the ninth to seal the match when
Paire sent a service return wide.
"Of course I was not at 100 percent today," Nadal, 32, told
reporters. "It's true that with my serve in the second set I had
some troubles but my return was working well ... it was more
about the mistakes from the baseline in my opinion."
Nadal will face Stan Wawrinka in the round of 16 after the Swiss
rallied to beat Hungarian Marton Fucsovics 1-6 7-6(2) 7-6(10).
In earlier action, a solid-serving Novak Djokovic kept his bid
for a fifth Rogers Cup title alive with a 6-3 6-4 win over
Canadian wildcard Peter Polansky.
The ninth-seeded Serb, competing in his first tournament since
his Wimbledon triumph last month, won a dominant 83 percent of
his first service points and wrapped up the day's opening match
minutes before the first of several rain delays.
"I thought I served well in the moments when I really need it
and I was looking for the first serve," said Djokovic.
"I thought I found pretty good accuracy and angles with the
first serve, and also my second serve worked pretty well.
Overall my game was so-and-so. In the moments when I probably
needed to step it up, I did."
Next up for Djokovic in the round of 16 is Greek teenager
Stefanos Tsitsipas, who upset Austrian seventh seed Dominic
Thiem 6-3 7-6(6).
A win for Djokovic would set up a potential quarter-final clash
with German second seed Alexander Zverev, who advanced to the
third round after a 6-4 6-4 win over Bradley Klahn.
Also advancing to the third round were Wimbledon runner-up Kevin
Anderson, fifth seed Grigor Dimitrov, sixth seed Marin Cilic,
eighth seed John Isner, Dutchman Robin Haase and Russian Karen
Khachanov, who upset Spanish 12th seed Pablo Carreno Busto 6-4
7-6(3).
(Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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