Murray beats Seppi to reach 3rd round at Queens

London:

Top-seeded Andy Murray beat Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-1, 6-4 on Wednesday in the second round in the grass-court tournament at Queen's Club.

Seppi double-faulted on break point at 1-1, and Murray went on to lose only three points in the last four games of the first set.

The Italian recovered an early break in the second set, but Murray was never under any real pressure and broke again for the match when Seppi sent a forehand long.

Murray will play 16th-seeded Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain, who downed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6 (3), 6-3.

"I started the match very well," said Murray, who lost to Seppi in their only previous grass-court match three years ago. "I returned well. My serve could have been a little bit better, but I was happy with the way I moved and I didn't make too many errors."

Lleyton Hewitt, seeded 15th, rallied to beat Frederico Gil of Portugal 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to set up a match against No. 2 Andy Roddick. Both are former four-time champions.

Nicolas Mahut of France upset fifth-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia 7-6 (1), 7-6 (4) after losing one of his rackets before the match.

"I don't know what happened," Mahut said. "My racket just disappeared before my match. Maybe a player took it by mistake. We have to find out. But I had four more in my bag so it was OK."

Fourteenth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia defeated Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-4, 7-6 (3), and Belgium's Steve Darcis overcame Alberto Martin of Spain 6-2, 6-4.

Seventh-seeded Marat Safin of Russia withdrew with a back injury and was replaced in the draw by South Africa's Rik De Voest.

Fourth-seeded Gael Monfils of France also pulled out with a wrist injury, giving Darcis a walkover into the quarter-finals.