ANDY Murray will be bidding to leapfrog Rafael Nadal as world number two at the Montreal Masters next week - but he could not have a harder route the final.

Murray will face either Yen-Hsun Lu or Jeremy Chardy in the second round in Montreal in his first match since his semi-final exit at Wimbledon in July.

The Scot, seeded third in Canada, infamously lost to Lu - ranked 62nd in the world - at the Beijing Olympics, while he has never faced France's Chardy, who is ranked 36th.

Nadal, who has not played a competitive match since his fourth-round defeat at the French Open, has already been overtaken by Roger Federer as the world number one after the Swiss' victories at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

And the Spaniard is currently just 475 points ahead of the British number one in the world rankings.

But Murray will have a tough task if he is to match last year's semi-final appearance with Gael Monfils, Marat Safin and Lleyton Hewitt all potential third-round opponents.

And Nikolay Davydenko, Fernando Gonzalez, Ivo Karlovic and Wimbledon semi-finalist Tommy Haas could all await in the quarter finals, while Roger Federer is likely to be his opponent, should the Scot reach the last four.