Murray through after awkward Verdasco test

MELBOURNE, Jan 18 (Reuters) British teenager Andy Murray booked his place in the third round of the Australian Open today with a hard-fought 7-6 7-5 6-4 victory over Spain's Fernando Verdasco.

The 19-year-old struggled to handle the left-hander's awkward array of acutely angled groundstrokes, but having clinched two tough opening sets he held on after letting slip a 4-1 lead in the third to win in two hours and 48 minutes on Vodafone Arena.

The first set saw six consecutive breaks of serve as both struggled to find their service games, but the 15th seed clinched the opening set tiebreak 7-4 and crucially broke in game 11 of the second to set up a two-set lead.

Murray, who accounted for another Spaniard, Alberto Martin, for the loss of just one game in the first round, now faces Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela, the man who ended his Melbourne Park campaign last year at the first hurdle.

Reuters PM GC1301