Murray needs third set to win in Brisbane

BRISBANE, Australia, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Top-seeded Andy Murray needed a third set Tuesday to get out of the first round of the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Australia.

Murray, starting the year with a world No. 4 ranking, broke open a tight match by taking the last four games of a 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 win over Mikhail Kukushkin. He dropped a seesaw first set in which Kukushkin recorded three service breaks.

But Murray saw only two break points after that and dropped just two points in four service games of the third set.

Fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori and No. 6-seeded Radek Stepanek also had to win third sets to advance Tuesday but seventh-seeded Jurgen Melzer was ousted by Philipp Petzschner 6-1, 7-5.

Nishikori defeated Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 by winning almost three-quarters of the points on serve in the second and third sets. Stepanek was a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 winner over Matthew Ebden with single breaks in the first and third sets.

Unseeded players moving into the second round with wins Tuesday were Tommy Haas, Tatsuma Ito, Jarkko Nieminen, Igor Andreev and Santiago Giraldo.