Murray earns quick win to beat the rain in New York (1st Lead)

Sep 3, 2010, 21:42 GMT

New York - Andy Murray raced to beat the potential rain from a fast-diminishing Atlantic storm, spending less than 90 minutes in a 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 defeat of Jamaican Dustin Brown at the US Open Friday.

The Scottish fourth seed moved into the third round with 12 aces and six breaks of his number 123rd-ranked opponent.

The dreadlocked Brown showed a flamboyant edge, with shoulder- length hair and colourful mismatched shoelaces. With the exception of a brief rain interruption, the match was one-way traffic for Murray, who lost the 2008 final in New York to Roger Federer.

'I'd never played him before,' said Murray. 'He went for his shots from the start and hit big. I was lucky today with the weather and to get off in straight sets. He's a different kind of a player, a shotmaker who's fun to watch.

'But I'll have to play better than today. It was windy out there and you just try to get on and off the court as quickly as possible.'

Frenchman Michael Llodra followed up his upset of Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych with a defeat of Romanian Victor Hanescu 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-2.

Spain's Tommy Robredo advanced as French opponent Julien Benneteau retired trailing 6-4, 6-6. Sergiy Stakhovsky took advantage of the inexperience of American Ryan Harrison, saving three match points for a 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) victory over the youngster from Texas.

Women's holder Kim Clijsters continued her sprint with a 6-3, 6-0 thrashing of Czech Petra Kvitova after once trailing 0-3.

'Even though I was down, I had some opportunities even to break her,' said Clijsters. 'I was just focused every point.'

Clijsters said she still has work to do. 'I feel like I'm close to my best. It's only a matter of a few little details that I want to improve. A match like this probably gives me more satisfaction because I beat a good player without even playing my best tennis.'

French Open finalist Samantha Stosur made more personal progress as the fifth-seeded Australian beat Italian Sara Errani 6-2, 6-3.

The victory was Stosur's second over Errani in less than a week.

Stosur has now made it into the third round or better at each of the four majors with a continuing career breakthrough that began last season with a Roland Garros semi.

'I'm really happy with that win. Since my first round I've played two really good matches now. I couldn't ask for much more,' said the Australian, after winning her 42nd match of a busy season.

Stosur will play for the quarter-finals against Russian 12th seed Elena Dementieva, who defeated Daniela Hantuchova 7-5, 6-2.

Dementieva has now won 12 of 16 meetings in the series, including six of the last seven. Dementieva stands 4-2 over Stosur, with the pair last playing in the summer of 2009.

'It's always good to have a positive experience against a player, but it's gonna be different match,' said Dementieva. 'We haven't played for a long time, and Samantha really has improved her game a lot.'