France's [ Images ] Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon suffered early exits from the Cincinnati Masters on Tuesday.

American James Blake [ Images ], a former world number four, crashed out of the tournament in just 45 minutes but his compatriot Mardy Fish [ Images ] battled into the second round.

Fish produced a spirited display to defeat Simon 7-6, 7-5 and set up a match with Spanish eighth-seed Fernando Verdasco [ Images ].

Monfils, the 16th seed, fell to Colombian qualifier Alejandro Falla [ Images ] 6-3, 6-4 while Blake's slide down the rankings continued with a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin.

The good news for France came with Richard Gasquet defeating 12th seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych, the Wimbledon [ Images ] runner-up, began his campaign against Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu in straightforward fashion with a 6-4, 6-4 win in his second round match.

The top seeds, including world number one Rafael Nadal [ Images ], begin their second-round matches on Wednesday.

Nadal will face American Taylor Dent while Roger Federer [ Images ] takes on Istomin and Britain's Andy Murray [ Images ] faces Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.