U.S. Open: John Isner, Andy Murray advance

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John Isner didn’t play tennis for the two weeks before the U.S. Open and instead spent eight hours a day having a badly sprained right ankle treated, treated, treated. Maybe that’s a good way to prep for a major tournament.

Isner, who famously played the 11 hour, five-minute Wimbledon first-round match, moved into the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over 63rd-ranked Marco Chiudinelli of Swizterland. Isner, seeded 18th, served 24 aces including two in his final game and will next play the winner of a match betwen 12th-seeded Mikhail Youzney of Russia and Israel’s Dudi Sela.

After getting into a bit of an unexpected first-set battle against dreadlocked Dustin Brown of Jamaica, fourth-seeded Andy Murray recovered his confidence and cruised to a 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 win in only one hour, 25 minutes. Brown, 25, is ranked only 123rd in the world and has spent much of the summer traveling in a van to challenger events trying to raise his ranking.

-- Diane Pucin, reporting from New York