World number one Roger Federer and second seed Andy Roddick recorded two victories apiece on a busy day at the $2.5 million Toronto Masters on Thursday to advance to the quarter-final stages.

But it was a short day for crowd favourite Andre Agassi, the 10th seed falling 6-3, 6-3 to Austrian Jurgen Melzer in a second-round encounter in the morning.

Fifth seed Tim Henman of Britain joined Agassi as a second-round casualty when he lost to unseeded Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten 7-5, 6-4.

Melzer called it the "best day of my life" and he kept up his surge by ousting Chile's Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-3 in the third round.

Federer began his day with a 7-5, 6-1 second-round win over Swede Robin Soderling before squeezing past Max Mirnyi of Belarus 7-6, 7-6 in the afternoon.

The Swiss player will next face France's Fabrice Santoro, who put out ninth seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the third round.

NO RALLIES

Federer has now won all but one of his last 29 matches.

"I was happy I played Max in the second match because I knew there were not going to be any rallies," he told reporters.

"It was close. It could have gone either way but I think, again, like in the first match, I won the big points.

"It's tough to play two matches the same day. But that's OK now that I'm through and didn't lose too much energy."

Roddick, the defending champion, had a tougher-than-expected time against Spain's Feliciano Lopez in his second-round match, progressing 6-3, 7-6.

"He served a ton," said Roddick. "The second set almost got away from me."

But the American found it a lot easier in the third round, romping past Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela 6-1, 6-4.

Roddick now meets Czech qualifier Jan Hernych, who outlasted Henman's conqueror Kuerten 5-7, 7-6, 6-4.

Fourth seed Carlos Moya of Spain was the victim of a third-round upset, going down 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to Germany's Nicolas Kiefer.