Former world number one Gustavo Kuerten retired from his match against Andrei Pavel at the Canada Tennis Masters on Tuesday.

The Brazilian withdrew with pain from his recent hip surgery after losing the first set of his first round match to the defending champion 7-5.

"I have to listen my body and take it easy, even in practise," said Kuerten.

Kuerten was joined on the sidelines by former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek and sixth seed Albert Costa who all failed to advance.

Costa fell to American Vince Spadea, while Krajicek lost to Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.

Tommy Haas signalled a welcome return to form by seeing off Frederic Niemeyer 6-3 6-3 in the Toronto event.

The German third seed took time out from tennis after his parents' near fatal road accident in June, but returned for last week's Mercedes-Benz Cup in Los Angeles.

Haas overcame the Canadian wildcard Niemeyer in exactly one hour on a sun-kissed centre court.

Second-seeded Russian Marat Safin eased into the second round with a 6-4 6-3 win over Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela.

The 2000 US Open champion is the highest remaining seed in the $2.95m tournament following the upset on Monday of world number one Lleyton Hewitt.

Safin, ranked two in the ATP Tour Champions' Race despite not adding to his career haul of 10 titles this season, faced a difficult opening assignment in the 25th-ranked Chela.

But the world number two was always in command and claimed early breaks in both sets against the Argentine.

Safin, the 2000 Canada Masters winner, was joined in the second round by 1998 French Open champion and 16th seed Carlos Moya of Spain, who won through 7-6 6-4 against Julien Boutter of France.

Pete Sampras progessed after a hard-fought defeat of South African Wayne Ferriera, and eighth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero and 11th seed Sebastien Grosjean also needed three sets to seal a berth in the second round.

Tuesday's results:

3-Tommy Haas (Ger) bt Frederic Niemeyer (Can) 6-3 6-3
16-Carlos Moya (Spa) bt Julien Boutter (Fra) 7-6 (7-5) 6-4
Mariano Zabaleta (Arg) bt Davide Sanguinetti (Ita) 7-6 (8-6) 6-4
Stefan Koubek (Aus) bt Fernando Gonzalez (Chi) 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-3
2-Marat Safin (Rus) bt Juan Ignacio Chela (Arg) 6-4 6-3
5-Yevgeny Kafelnikov (Rus) bt Max Mirnyi (Bel) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-2
Jarkko Nieminen (Fin) bt Richard Krajicek (Hol) 7-5 6-1
Andrei Pavel (Rom) bt Gustavo Kuerten (Bra) 7-5 ret
Vincent Spadea (US) bt 6-Albert Costa (Spa) 6-3 6-1
Younes El Aynaoui (Mor) bt Nicolas Kiefer (Ger) 6-4 2-6 6-4
13-Pete Sampras (US) bt Wayne Ferreira (South Africa) 7-6 (8-6) 5-7 6-4
12-Andy Roddick (US) bt Dominik Hrbaty (Svk) 6-2 6-4
8-Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spa) bt Thomas Enqvist (Swe) 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (4-7) 7-5
Nicolas Lapentti (Ecu) bt Gaston Gaudio (Arg) 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-2)
11-Sebastien Grosjean (Fra) bt Bohdan Ulihrach (Cze) 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4
Kristian Pless (Den) bt Daniel Nestor (Can) 6-3 4-6 6-2

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