Murray Bounces Back With Falla Win

© Getty ImagesAndy Murray won the 2009 Miami title.

Fourth seed Andy Murray bounced back from an early loss at the BNP Paribas Open by beating Alejandro Falla of Colombia 6-2, 6-3 on Friday for a place in the Sony Ericsson Open third round.

Murray, the 2009 champion (d. Djokovic), recorded his 15th match win of the season after he won 67 per cent of his service points and hit four aces for victory in 77 minutes.

"I was expecting it to be tricky... and managed to play better," said Murray. "Once I settled down and started playing well, I was in most of his service games. So I was putting pressure on him. The first game of the second set was very important. I had saved a couple of break points and once I got ahead there, I felt much more comfortable."

The 24-year-old Scot won his 22nd ATP World Tour title at the Brisbane International (d. Dolgopolov) in January and fell to Roger Federer in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships final earlier this month. He is 15-3 overall on the year.

Murray will now play Canadian No. 26 seed Milos Raonic, who hit 17 aces to beat French qualifier Arnaud Clement 7-6(7), 6-2 in one hour and 44 minutes.

Sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga hit six aces and converted four of his six break point opportunities to beat Xavier Malisse of Belgium 7-5, 7-5 in one hour and 37 minutes. Philipp Kohlschreiber, the No. 32 seed from Germany, won 78 per cent of his service points to beat Frederico Gil of Portugal 6-2, 7-5 in 72 minutes.

Ninth-seeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic knocked out David Nalbandian of Argentina 7-5, 6-3 in one hour and 45 minutes to set up a meeting against Ukrainian No. 18 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov, who lost 18 points on his serve to beat Croatian qualifier Antonio Veic 6-4, 7-5 in 86 minutes.

John Isner, the No. 10 seed, maintained his run of form, defeating Russian Nikolay Davydenko, the 2008 champion, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The 26-year-old Isner hit 10 aces past Davydenko, who spent 268 weeks in the Top 10 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings but now finds himself at World No. 40. The pair's fourth meeting (2-2 overall) lasted one hour and 45 minutes.

Isner, who reached his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (l. to Federer) last week, will next play No. 19 seed Florian Mayer. The German beat Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 39 minutes.

France's Gilles Simon, the No. 13 seed, overcame Spanish qualifier Roberto Bautista-Agut 6-4, 6-2 in 85 minutes. Simon lost 14 points on serve in his 11th match win of the year. He will next face No. 22 seed Jurgen Melzer, who defeated Robin Haase of the Netherlands 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4 in just over two hours.