No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal cruised to a victory in the second round of the Miami Open on Friday before play was halted due to rain.
Nadal beat Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 6-2 to advance, while No. 3 seed Andy Murray was an easy winner, defeating American Donald Young 6-4, 6-2 on the hardcourts at Crandon Park.
Nadal is a four-time Miami runner-up, including last year against Novak Djokovic. Murray has captured Miami titles in 2009 and 2013 and was the 2012 runner-up to Djokovic, who also topped the British star in January's Australian Open final.
Eighth-seeded 2010 Miami runner-up Tomas Berdych opened with a 6-3, 6-4 handling of 18-year-old Korean Hyeon Chung.
Meanwhile, talented Austrian Dominic Thiem doused 10th-seeded Spanish left-hander Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 6-3 and 15th-seeded tall South African Kevin Anderson dismissed American Sam Querrey 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.
Also, 23rd-seeded Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez grounded German Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 6-4; 24th-seeded Argentine Leonardo Mayer bested Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 7-6 (7-5); the 27th-seeded Santiago Giraldo got past Dutchman Robin Haase 6-2, 3-6, 6-0; and 25th-seeded Aussie Bernard Tomic topped American Austin Krajicek 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 on Day 3.
Play will resume on Saturday, with Djokovic opening his tournament with Slovak Martin Klizan.
The winner of this $5.4 million event will claim $900,400.
[SportsNetwork.com]
