Clijsters, Stosur, Dementieva move ahead before rainwater hits N.Y.

NEW YORK - Kim Clijsters hit Petra Kvitova and Hurricane Earl with a quick victory before rain briefly poised play at the U.S. Open.

The estimate from the tournament's meteorologist Friday called for intermittent showers, and officials planned to try to get in the full schedule of matches. The rain stoppage lasted 25 minutes.

It took only a matter of hours before the main apprehension went from heat to rain. Clijsters, the caring champion, won the final 12 games in her 6-3, 6-0 third-round victory over the 27th-seeded Kvitova. The second-seeded Belgian dropped two service games to fall at the back 3-0 early.

"A match like this today probably gives me more satisfaction, because I beat a good player without even playing my best tennis," Clijsters said.American teenager Ryan Harrison wasted three match points in a fifth-set tiebreaker to lose to Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky in the men's second round.

The 18-year-old qualifier led 6-3 in the tiebreaker but dropped the next five points. The 36th-ranked Stakhovsky won 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6) in 4 hours, 13 minutes.

Fans packed the grandstand and peered in from neighboring Louis Armstrong Stadium to cheer Harrison, the youngest and lowest-ranked player left in the draw. Harrison, who is based in Bradenton, Fla., and ranked 220th, upset 15th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic in the first round.
Fourth-seeded Andy Murray defeated Jamaica's Dustin Brown 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 to move into the third round. Fifth-seeded Samantha Stosur and 12th-seeded Elena Dementieva also advanced before the rain hit. Venus Williams and Rafael Nadal were to play at night.

Stosur nearly lost in the first round at the U.S. Open, dropping the opening set then going to a tiebreaker in the second against 64th-ranked Elena Vesnina. But she has cruised since and had seven aces and 37 winners Friday."First rounds are always that little extra bit of nerves and a little tricky," Stosur said. "Vesnina had been playing well recently, so it certainly wasn't the easiest first round you could've got. So to battle through that, I have a chance now to get to this point. And, yeah, I've played quite well the past two matches."

Stosur moves on to face Dementieva, who ousted 24th-seeded Daniela Hantuchova 7-5, 6-2. Dementieva, the 2004 runner-up at Flushing Meadows, has reached the semifinals three times but lost in the second round last year. The Russian missed Wimbledon with a left calf injury and has fallen out of the top 10 for the first time in more than three years.