MEMPHIS (Tennessee), Feb 23: Top seed Andy Roddick fended off a fierce challenge from Australian Wayne Arthurs on Wednesday to reach the third round of the ATP tennis tournament here.

Roddick withstood one match point, 33 aces and his second third-set tiebreaker in as many nights, emerging with a 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (11/9), 7-6 (7/2) victory.

The American wasn’t the only player who had to work out of a jam, as Scottish teenager Andy Murray came within two points of defeat against Rainer Schuettler before clawing back to beat the German 1-6, 7-5, 6-2 in a first-round encounter.

Murray beat Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt en route to his first ATP title in San Jose last week. It appeared he wouldn’t be able to keep that momentum going until he broke Schuettler as the German served for the match at 5-4 in the second set.

Schuettler led 30-15 in that game, but Murray fought back, finally converting his second break point to level the set at 5-5.

He broke Schuettler a second time to take the set, then ran away with the match in the third.

Roddick, who had to battle through three sets to subdue wildcard Mardy Fish on Tuesday, found himself in another dogfight against Arthurs, but held on to book a quarter-final berth in the 690,000-dollar ATP tournament that is running concurrently with a 175,000-dollar WTA event.

The men’s draw lost second-seeded German Nicolas Kiefer, who withdrew Wednesday with a sinusitis before his scheduled first-round match.

He was replaced in the draw by South African lucky loser Rik de Voest, who made the most of his opportunity with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Swede Jonas Bjorkman.

Tommy Haas reached the second round when qualifier Justin Gimelstob retired with a back injury when trailing 1-2 in the first set.

In women’s action, all five seeded players on Wednesday’s slate made it safely into the third round.

Third-seeded Swede Sofia Arvidsson beat American Lisa Raymond 6-4, 6-4, fourth-seeded American Laura Granville defeated Tatiana Perebiynis of the Ukraine 6-1, 6-2, and sixth-seeded Marta Domachowska of Poland beat Slovokian Martina Sucha 6-3, 6-3.

Results

Men (first round)

Andy Murray (GBR) bt Rainer Schuettler (GER) 1-6, 7-5, 6-2; Tommy Haas (GER) bt Justin Gimelstob (USA) 2-1, ret; Paul Goldstein (USA) bt Scoville Jenkins (USA) 6-4, 6-3; Vince Spadea (USA) bt Bobby Reynolds (USA) 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7/2); Rik de Voest (RSA) bt Jonas Bjorkman (SWE) 6-4, 6-3

Second round

Andy Roddick (USA) bt Wayne Arthurs (AUS) 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (11/9), 7-6 (7/2)

Women (second round)

Sofia Arvidsson (SWE) bt Lisa Raymond (USA) 6-4, 6-4; Laura Granville (USA) bt Tatiana Perebiynis (UKR) 6-1, 6-2; Marta Domachowska (POL) bt Martina Sucha (CZE) 6-3, 6-3, Amy Frazier (USA) bt Yaroslava Shvedova (RUS) 1-6, 6-0, 6-0 Lilia Osterloh (USA) bt Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, Jill Craybas (USA) bt Meng Yuan (CHN) 6-4, 6-2.

Rotterdam ATP results

ROTTERDAM: Collated results from the third day of the 780,000-euro Rotterdam ATP tournament on Wednesday:

First round

Tim Henman bt Thomas Johansson 6-4, 6-4; Jarkko Nieminen bt Mario Ancic 7-5, 7-6 (7/5); Radek Stepanek bt Mickael Lammer 6-4, 6-2

Second round

Christophe Rochus bt Taylor Dent 7-6 (7/0) - retired (back injury); Nikolay Davydenko bt Greg Rusedski 6-4, 6-1; Arvind Parmar bt Dominik Meffert 6-3, 6-3.

Sao Paulo Open results

SAO PAULO, Feb 23: Collated results on the third day of the 380,000-dollar ATP tournament on Wednesday:

Second round

Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG) bt Potito Starace (ITA), 6-4, 7-5; Boris Pashanski (SCG bt Ricardo Mello (BRA) 6-2, 6-3; Nicolas Almagro (ESP) bt Flavio Saretta (BRA) 7-5, 7-5; Alberto Martin (ESP) bt Andre Ghem (BRA) 6-2, 3-6, 6-3; Nicolas Massu (CHI) bt Fernando Vicente (ESP) 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3; Olivier Patience (FRA) bt Gaston Gaudio (ARG) 6-2, 6-2; Juan Monaco (ARG) bt Florent Serra (FRA) 6-1, 6-1.

Rain wipes out play

DUBAI: Rain severely disrupted the quarterfinals of the Dubai Open on Thursday, leaving a host of leading seeds potentially facing two matches on Friday.

Top seed Amelie Mauresmo, winner of five of her last six tournaments, finally got on court against Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova after a five-hour delay and broke to lead 3-2.

Rain returned after less than an hour’s tennis, forcing organisers to abandon play for the day at 9pm local time.—Agencies