Murray dominates Dlouhy serve to progress

Andy Murray booked a place in the third round of the St Petersburg Open with a 6-2, 6-4, win over Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic. Murray dominated his rival's serve to win inside an hour and 10 minutes.

The 20-year-old got off to a scintillating start, breaking Dlouhy in the first game of the match before taking his own service game in resounding fashion, including a first ace, to take an instant 2-0 lead.

The next four games went with serve as the match settled down before Murray took two in succession, including a second break to take the set 6-2.

Dlouhy was under pressure again at the start of the second set but this time held his first game before stunning the Scot to complete a break of his own and go 2-0 up. A second held serve put Murray three games behind but a fine comeback from the British number one was in the offing. At 4-2 Dlouhy double-faulted at game point and allowed Murray to fight back, earning a break to make it 4-3 before holding serve to draw things level.

Murray then continued his fine counter-attack, breaking again before closing the second set 6-4 ahead to progress.

Meanwhile, his brother Jamie Murray and Australian Jordan Kerr slipped to a quarter-final doubles defeat at the Lyons Grand Prix. Competing together for the third time this year, they had come through an opening-round test against Argentines Martin Garcia and Sebastian Prieto.

But Poland's Lukasz Kubot and Croatian Lovro Zovko edged into the semi-finals with a 7-6, 7-6 victory. In a match featuring eight breaks of serve, the Murray-Kerr combination faltered at the crucial stages.

Russian third seed Mikhail Youzhny beat defending champion Mario Ancic in St Petersburg yesterday 6-4, 6-2. Youzhny earned one break in the first set and two more in the second to secure a quarter-final tie with seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber.