Defending champion Murray cruises in San Jose

SAN JOSE, California, Feb 14 (Reuters) Defending champion Andy Murray demolished American Kevin Kim 6-3 6-1 to march into the second round of the San Jose Open.

The 19-year-old Scot, who beat Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt 12 months ago to win his maiden ATP Tour title, hammered 11 aces as he stormed to victory in just 57 minutes yesterday.

''I hadn't been hitting the ball that well in practice because I'd been doing a lot of fitness work, but I think I played well,'' Murray said.

''The court was probably 40 percent faster than last year, which I wasn't expecting.

''I'd probably like it a little bit slower, but I play pretty well indoors and I get a bit more on my serve, so that's good.'' Seeded three, Murray raced to a 5-1 lead with some stunning shot-making and although he was broken when serving for the set, he made no mistake the second time round to seal it in 27 minutes.

The second set was one-way traffic as Kim, the world number 108, was completely outplayed and Murray cruised through to a meeting with Kristian Pless of Denmark.

Russian Marat Safin enjoyed a successful San Jose Open debut as he beat American wildcard Scott Oudsema 6-4 7-6 to reach the second round.

The former world number one, seeded fourth, withstood a late rally from the world number 261 in the second set to advance to a clash with Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei.

GOOD START Safin only arrived in San Jose on Monday after helping Russia win their Davis Cup tie in Chile at the weekend and did not have much time to acclimatise.

''It was quite tough,'' Safin said.

''I came here quite late, didn't play on centre court, just warmed up a little today and then the balls were flying and the court was fast.

''But I served well and played pretty well, so it's a good start. Hopefully that will be my toughest match this week.'' Oudsema smashed 17 aces but Safin, despite being broken when serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set, held on to take the tiebreak 7-3 and clinch victory in one hour, 28 minutes.

Safin's last tournament win came at the 2005 Australian Open, his second grand slam title.

In other action, there were wins for seventh seed Lee Hyung-taik of Korea and eighth-seeded American Vince Spadea.

Lee beat American Phillip King 7-6 6-3 while Spadea, at 32 the oldest player in the draw, eased past Danai Udomchoke of Thailand 6-3 6-4.

German Bjorn Phau crushed Konstantinos Economidis of Greece 6-2 6-3 in the day's other match.

Top seed Andy Roddick and number two James Blake begin their campaigns on Wednesday.

REUTERS SAM HS1426