SAN JOSE (California), Feb 15: Defending champion Andy Murray battled his way into the quarter-finals of the SAP Open here on Wednesday, while Andy Roddick and James Blake booked second-round berths.

In the day's only second-round clash, third-seeded Murray cooled off after a sizzling start but held on to beat Denmark's Kristian Pless 6-0, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4.

“My serve kept me in the match today,” said the 19-year-old Scot, who captured his first career ATP title here last year. “I didn't return as well as I normally do and my ground strokes weren't that solid.”

After dominating the opening set, Murray allowed too many errors to creep in the second, and his frustration was clear.

However, he earned the first service break of the third set to lead 4-3, when Pless hit a backhand long on break point. “I pretty much gave him the break with that backhand,” Pless said. “I'm not happy with myself.”

In the night session, top-seeded Roddick struggled early against Canadian Frank Dancevic, but steadied the ship and cruised to a 7-5, 6-1 victory.

“I was pretty uncomfortable those first couple of games,” said Roddick, who is playing his first ATP tournament since his semi-final loss to Roger Federer at the Australian Open. “It got better as the match went on.” Roddick booked a second-round meeting with wild card Sam Querry.

Second seed James Blake of the US needed only 52 minutes to reach the second round, beating Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-2. Blake didn't face a break point in the match as he rolled into a second-round encounter with Croatian Ivo Karlovic.

Results (x denotes seeding):

Second round: Andy Murray (GBR x3) bt Kritian Pless (DEN) 6-0, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4.

First round: Mardy Fish (US x5) bt Teimuraz Gabashvili (RUS) 6-3, 6-2; Benjamin Becker (GER x6) bt Dusan Vemic (SEM) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4; Feliciano Lopez (ESP) bt Rainer Schuettler (AUT) 7-6 (7/1), 6-1; Andy Roddick (US x1) bt Frank Dancevic (CAN) 7-5, 6-1; James Blake (US x2) bt Igor Kunitsyn (RUS) 6-3, 6-2.

WTA results

Antwerp (Belgium): Second round: Nadia Petrova (RUS x3) bt Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 7-6 (7/2), 6-4; Elena Likhovtseva (RUS) bt Elena Dementieva (RUS x4) 6-2, 1-1 ret.

Bangalore Open

Bangalore: Second round: Tzipora Obziler (ISR) bt Vasilisa Bardina (RUS x3) 6-1, 6-2; Jelena Kostanic (CRO x4) bt Dominika Cibulkova (SVK) 6-4, 6-1; Yurika Sema (JPN) bt Yulia Beygelzimer (UKR) 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.

First Round: Mara Santangelo (ITA x1) bt Sun Shengnan (CHN) 6-2, 7-6(7/4); Sania Mirza (IND x2) bt Martina Sucha (SVK) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3; Melinda Czink (HUN) bt Chan Yung-Jan (TPE x6) 1-6, 7-5, 6-2; Alicia Molik (AUS) bt Alberta Brianti (ITA x8) 6-4, 6-3. –Agencies