Tennis: Murray subdues extravagant Brown to progress

Murray needed just 85 minutes to seal a 7-5 6-3 6-0 victory, shrugging off a brief rain delay to advance to the last 32 at Flushing Meadows in New York for the fifth year in succession.

Flamboyant Brown delighted his noisy band of supporters with some extravagant hitting early on, but once Murray got to grips with the 25-year-old's serve the result was never in doubt.

Murray had just held serve to lead 2-1 in the opening set when play was suspended due to light rain.

Bad weather had been forecast due to Hurricane Earl sweeping up the east coast of the United States, although it had been downgraded from a category four to category one storm.

Play resumed after a delay of around 25 minutes and Brown continued to produce some thumping serves and forehands, but the world No 123 was unable to put any pressure on Murray's serve and the Scot gained the decisive break in the 12th game of the set.

Two superb forehand winners were whipped past Brown as he charged into the net to set up two set points, and although he saved the first with an ace the British No 1 one forced his opponent to net a forehand to take the set 7-5.

Murray had to ask the umpire to ensure he was ready to play before Brown served, but it was the Scot who looked in a hurry to get the match finished.

The 23-year-old raced into a 5-0 lead in the second set with two breaks of serve, with Brown having no answer to Murray's more complete all-round game.

Brown held serve to avoid a whitewash and then broke back with the aid of two crunching forehand returns. Another successful hold reduced the deficit to 5-3, but Murray made no mistake at the second time of asking, serving out to love to take the set 6-3 and place one foot in the third round.

Murray raced through the third set with three breaks of serve to set up a match with Juan Ignacio Chela or Stanislas Wawrinka.

Defending women's champion Kim Clijsters won 12 games in a row to storm into the third round with a 6-3 6-0 victory over Petra Kvitova.

Daniela Hantuchova led 2-0 in the opening set against Elena Dementieva before losing five games in a row and eventually succumbed 5-7 2-6.