Tennis: Cool Murray breezes through to third round

January 17, 2013 1:19pm

MELBOURNE - Andy Murray kept his cool in a Melbourne scorcher to reach the third round of the Australian Open with a businesslike 6-2 6-2 6-4 victory over Joao Sousa on Hisense Arena on Thursday.

The British third seed looked intent on keeping his time in the heat and humidity to the absolute minimum, wrapping up victory in just 101 minutes when his Portuguese opponent went long with a return.

Two breaks in the first set, a couple in the second and one more in the third proved enough to set up a meeting with Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis, who earlier stunned German 25th seed Florian Mayer 6-2 6-3 6-1.

Murray, who is chasing a second successive grand slam title after his breakthrough triumph at the U.S. Open, has reached the semifinals at Melbourne Park for the last three years. - Reuters