MONTREAL - Lleyton Hewitt won the battle of the former world number ones at the Montreal Masters on Monday, beating Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-6 6-4 to reach the second round.

The Australian, ranked four places below Ferrero at number 21, came through in one hour, 47 minutes and next plays either American ninth seed James Blake or Juergen Melzer of Austria.

In his first appearance since Wimbledon, where he reached the fourth round, Hewitt looked refreshed and his greater consistency helped him get past Ferrero, who has shown signs lately of regaining his best form.

After trading an early break of serve apiece, the rest of the first set went with serve but Hewitt surged ahead 6-3 in the tiebreak before clinching it 7-5.

The Australian, looking for his second title of the year, then broke in the first game of the second set and despite a couple of nervy moments, held the advantage to reach the second round.

Earlier, Tomas Berdych was the first seeded casualty, the 10th seed losing 6-4 7-5 to 20-year-old Dutchman Robin Haase.

Haase, whose ranking has soared from 669 at the start of last year to its current mark of 103, will now play either former world number one Carlos Moya of Spain or Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

Later on Monday, Argentines David Nalbandian and Guillermo Canas are both in action while Russian Mikhail Youzhny takes on Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean.