The sixth-seeded American won his second-round match at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament Tuesday, ousting Mahut 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-3 in a match that was twice interrupted by rain.
Roddick needed just 28 minutes to take both the first and third sets. Roddick was especially strong in the third, hitting six of his 18 aces in the final nine games and going 15-for-15 in first serve points won.
"I thought I moved well and most importantly I felt good physically,'' Roddick said. "All in all, I think it was a good match.''
Also, Peter Polansky dropped a 6-2, 6-4 decision to American Jesse Levine.
Polansky's departure left Frank Dancevic as the lone Canadian remaining in singles, but he was eliminated, too.
Dancevic, who reached the quarterfinals of last year's tournament in Montreal before being eliminated by Rafael Nadal, was knocked out on Tuesday by third-seeded Novak Djokovic - the defending champion. Djokovic advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 second-round victory.
Dancevic, who upset Mario Ancic of Croatia in the first round, was scheduled to play a doubles match with Levine against Australians Paul Hanley and Jordan Kerr on Wednesday night.
In other action, Germany's Tommy Haas beat Spain's Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-2; 16th-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic beat Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-1; Russian Igor Andreev got past France's Gael Monfils 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3); Sweden's Robin Soderling defeated Argentina's Guillermo Canas 7-5, 6-1; Sweden's Thomas Johansson got past Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev 7-6 (4), 6-1; Gilles Simon of France defeated American Donald Young 6-1, 6-3; Marin Cilic of Croatia beat Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 and Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman beat France's Arnaud Clement 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.
Roddick initiated one of the suspensions in play when in the first set he walked off the court leading 3-1 during rain. Roddick said he did so more to prevent injury than risk losing momentum in the match.
"Sure, but I was also scared that I would slip and break a leg,'' he said. "The risk-reward there was a little obvious.
"It was coming down pretty hard.''
Roddick also disputed a line call that allowed Mahut to hold serve in the second set and tie the score at 1-1. Roddick was chasing down a Mahut shot when it was called out, so he didn't swing at it despite being close enough to. The call was overruled - rightfully so, the American said - so Roddick figured there would be a replay of the point.
Instead, however, the umpire gave Mahut the point to tie the set.
"I guess the rule is you have to be 100 percent sure the person can't get to the ball and I said I would've had to have alligator arms not to get to that ball,'' he said. "I was a foot away from it so I just couldn't understand it.
"And then I think when they realize they're wrong sometimes they sit here until they convince themselves that they made the right call. But the replay guy completely sold him out. I had a talk with him just now and everything is fine but I finally said, 'I don't really care about the point, I just want you to tell me you know you made the wrong call.' Some days they go your way, some days they don't.''
By beating Polansky, Levine advances to a second-round showdown with Spain's Rafael Nadal, the tournament's second seed and this year's French Open and Wimbledon singles champion.
"Obviously I'm looking forward to playing on (Center Court) against Rafael Nadal,'' Levine said. "He's a great player and I always watch him on TV and it will be kind of cool to play him.''
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