Top seed Roddick storms through; Murray advances

SAN JOSE, Feb 15 (Reuters) Top seed Andy Roddick smashed his way into the second round of the San Jose Open with a 7-5 6-1 victory over Canadian Frank Dancevic.

The American, chasing his third title at the tournament, hit his stride after a tight first set to book a clash against compatriot Sam Querrey.

World number 92 Dancevic matched Roddick for much of the early action yesterday but a blistering backhand return sealed the opening set for the world number four.

That lifted the top seed's confidence and his serve clicked into gear, ending with 13 aces.

Earlier, defending champion Andy Murray survived a scare to reach the last eight with a 6-0 6-7 6-4 win over Dane Kristian Pless.

Pless, the world number 83, had two break points to lead 4-2 in the final set, but Murray rallied for victory to set up a meeting with seventh seed Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea or German Simon Greul.

After 27 minutes, Murray was heading for an easy victory as he left the Dane swatting returns in frustration.

Pless then went for broke and after trading early breaks, he took advantage of Murray's loss of concentration to snatch the set on a tiebreak, 7-5.

As Murray's frustration grew, the Dane led 3-2 and 40-15 on the Scot's serve in the decider but Murray saved them both and then broke in the next game, before holding on for victory.

FAST COURTS ''I got a bit frustrated at the start of the second set because he was basically tanking it at the end of the first, and then I was a bit cold as I hadn't hit the ball for a while,'' Murray said.

''I didn't play my best today but to give him credit, he played a really good second set -- he started coming into the net and going for everything.

''These courts are so fast that it's difficult to come back when you are behind in sets. But considering I had only played about 55 minutes of tennis in the last three weeks, it was good to get the win.'' Fifth seed Mardy Fish continued his good form as he crushed Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-3 6-2 to reach the second round.

The world number 25, who reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open last month, hit 11 aces as he raced through to a clash with fellow American Sam Warburg.

Spaniard Feliciano Lopez ousted Rainer Schuettler of Germany 7-6 6-1 while there was better luck for another German, Benjamin Becker, who beat Serbian qualifier Dusan Vemic 6-4 3-6 6-4.

REUTERS SAM PM1108