Jesse Levine hung in long enough against Rafael Nadal to win over some fans, but not the match.

The Ottawa-born qualifier was ousted by the second-seeded Spaniard 6-4, 6-2 yesterday at the $2.6-million Rogers Cup.

Though the crowd was initially pro-Nadal, some support swayed to Levine's side as the plucky 20-year-old took an early lead and played the Wimbledon champion tough.

"I think they really got behind me a lot of times, and that was helpful," said Levine, who moved to Florida when he was 13 and represents the U.S. in international play. "There was a lot of Rafa supporters out there. I was trying to hold my own and hoping to get some support behind me, and I felt like there was."

All of the day's matches were delayed for nearly six hours by a nasty thunderstorm. Roger Federer played his first match against Frenchman Gilles Simon in one of several matches later yesterday.

There were several notable upsets on the day. Croatian Marin Cilic ousted 12th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4, Sweden's Robin Soderling defeated 13th-seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-4, Argentina's Jose Acasuso beat 14th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, and Russian Igor Andreev got past 16th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Levine might have been on his way to an upset of his own, but stumbled when he thought too much about it.

"I think I was in that zone, not sure really where I was, and then I kind of came to my senses and realized that I'm playing Nadal on centre court," he said. "Obviously, nerves got a little bit of me there."

Levine took advantage of an uncharacteristically sluggish Nadal early. He broke the Wimbledon champion in the fourth game before taking a 4-1 lead in the first set.

But then he failed to capitalize on a break-point chance in the next game. Up 4-3, he missed another break point, and Nadal took over from there.

"Once he got that break back, I think that he really got settled into the match," Levine said.

"I came out kind of flying, and that's what I wanted to do, but I didn't want to let him back in like I did, obviously.

"If I would have went up 5-1, I think it would have been a little bit of a different story in the first set maybe. But obviously he came up with some good shots there, and then I had a couple mistakes."

Levine's inability to execute his opportunities was the difference. He won one of seven break points, where Nadal converted on four of seven break-point opportunities.

Still, Nadal was impressed by Levine, who's ranked No. 123 in the world, though he did admit to having never seen him play before their match.

"He's young, so he can be a very good player," Nadal said.

Levine was pleased at his showing, too. "That was definitely the highest-ranked player I ever played against in a tournament, and I hung in there for I would say the first set for sure. Hopefully I can keep rolling after this."

For his part, Nadal said he simply has to play better. "Today wasn't my best match obviously, but I didn't feel very bad after the beginning. If I don't play better, I'm going to have a lot of problems."

In other action yesterday, fifth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win over American Robby Ginepri, while 10th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet defeated qualifier Alexandre Kudryavtsev 7-5, 6-3. Russia's Dmitry Tursunov beat Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 7-6 (6).

Russian Marat Safin won his first-round matchup with American Sam Querrey 6-3, 6-3. The match began Tuesday before being suspended by rain.