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The Spanish Armada swept across New York with a wave so deadly that no other nation could stay in their wake. The War Admiral of that fleet was the top seed Rafael Nadal, who led a group of 7 Spaniards, who took no prisoners in the second round of the US Open. Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer, Nicolas Almagro, Feliciano Lopez, Tommy Robredo and Daniel Gimeno-Traver joined King Rafa in the third round where Thursday's winners Albert Montanes and Juan Carlos Ferrero lay in wait. Following their lead was the Prince of Scotland Andy Murray who pummelled his Commonwealth compatriot Dustin Brown of Jamaica. John Isner and Sam Querrey kept the American flag flying, while 18-year old Ryan Harrison failed to take advantage of his three match points in a pulsating encounter against Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Top seed Rafael Nadal continued to entertain the night crowd at Flushing Meadows, New York, as he produced a combative display to beat Uzbekistan's greatest contribution to tennis, Denis Istomin. Istomin lost the first set rather tamely 6-2, but fought tooth and nail in the next two to give the world no.1 a solid workout. Nadal had to claw his way back from 5-1 in the second set tiebreak, which he did in style, winning 6 points in a row to steal the second set. The third set went on serve right through till the end when Nadal picked his game up a notch with Istomin serving to force a tiebreak. The pressure of serving to stay in the match proved to be too much for the inexperienced Uzbekistani, who succumbed 2-6, 6-7, 5-7 in an entertaining encounter. Up next for Rafa is a former top 10 player, Gilles Simon of France, who upset the no.29 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 4-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Eight seed Fernando Verdasco was the most impressive of the Spaniards on display, dropping just 5 games en route to thumping Adrian Mannarino 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. Tenth seed David Ferrer was almost as impressive, quelling the challenge posed by Benjamin Becker in three easy sets 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. In sharp contrast there was also a five set win for the no.23 seed Feliciano Lopez and the 14th seed Nicolas Almagro needed four super tight sets to get the better of compatriot Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.   

Andy Murray, the no.4 seed and one of the favourites here for the title, came through an interesting encounter with the unconventional Jamaican Dustin Brown in straight sets 7-5, 6-3, 6-0. Brown was competitive right through the first set, and showed some stomach for the fight crawling back from 5-0 to 5-3 in the second before losing 7 games on the trot at the end of the contest. Next up for the Scotsman is Swiss no.2 Stanislas Wawrinka, who produced a facile 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 win against Juan Ignacio Chela.

The two gentle giants of American tennis John Isner and Sam Querrey also made their way through to round 3. Isner produced some brutal power hitting smashing 70 winners including 24 aces past Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland en route to a solid 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-4 win. Even more impressive was his good mate Querrey, who needed just 100 minutes to power past Marcel Granollers 6-2, 6-3, 6-4. However, there was heartbreak a plenty for 18-year old Ryan Harrison as fell in an unbelievable final set tiebreak to former US Open junior runner-up Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Stakhovsky and Harrison produced some incredible attacking tennis, rushing to the net to finish off points at every opportunity. Between them, the two youngsters made 174 trips to the forecourt and though barely half of those produced a winning outcome Stakhovsky and Harrison continued in their attacking vein. The Ukrainian battling a packed Grandstand in addition to his teenage foe, won the opening set before losing the next two. He rallied back to win the fourth and took an early break in final set. Stakhovsky had five opportunities to go up a double break in the decider, but Harrison saved those and then broke back in the following game, which itself was a slobber knocker.

The pair battled toe-to-toe in an 80 minute marathon fifth set and it appeared once again that Stakhovsky would pull away in the tiebreak as he twice went up an early mini-break. However, Harrison went on a 5 point run that saw him go ahead 6-3 and earn three match points. Stakhovsky saved the first two on his serve before Harrison dumped a double fisted backhand into the net to lose his third. He then returned an earlier favour from the Ukrainian throwing in a double fault at 6-6, and Stakhovsky sealed an incredible win with a volley winner on the following point. The young American may take months to get over the disappointment, while Stakhovsky extends his unbeaten run to 7 matches following his triumph last week at the Pilot Pen Open in New Haven.

Other seeds to make their way into the third round include Mikhail Youzhny (12), Stanislas Wawrinka (25) and David Nalbandian (31).

The Round of 32 kicks off tomorrow with the bottom half of the draw in full regale. Roger Federer takes on Lleyton Hewitt's vanquisher Paul-Henri Mathieu, while Novak Djokovic battles the American crowds and their hero James Blake. Robin Soderling and a trio of Frenchmen including Gael Monfils also promise to entertain on Saturday.

Friday Scores:

Singles - Second Round
[1] R Nadal (ESP) d D Istomin (UZB) 62 76(5) 75
[4] A Murray (GBR) d D Brown (JAM) 75 63 60
[8] F Verdasco (ESP) d A Mannarino (FRA) 61 62 62
[10] D Ferrer (ESP) d B Becker (GER) 63 64 64
[12] M Youzhny (RUS) d D Sela (ISR) 61 63 46 63
[14] N Almagro (ESP) d G Garcia-Lopez (ESP) 63 76(5) 46 76(4)
[18] J Isner (USA) d M Chiudinelli (SUI) 63 36 76(7) 64
[20] S Querrey (USA) d M Granollers (ESP) 62 63 64
[23] F Lopez (ESP) d B Paire (FRA) 64 67(4) 57 76(3) 62
[25] S Wawrinka (SUI) d J Ignacio Chela (ARG) 75 63 64
G Simon (FRA) d [29] P Kohlschreiber (GER) 46 63 16 61 63
[31] D Nalbandian (ARG) d F Serra (FRA) 75 64 62
S Stakhovsky (UKR) d R Harrison (USA) 63 57 36 63 76(6)
T Robredo (ESP) d J Benneteau (FRA) 64 66(2-1) retired
D Gimeno-Traver (ESP) d J Chardy (FRA) 46 62 60 76(2)
M Llodra (FRA) d V Hanescu (ROU) 76(2) 64 62

File Photograph Copyright: Italian Open (Constantini)