Djokovic, Murray advance in straight sets

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, last year's tournament finalists, advanced to the third round of the Australian Open with straight-set wins Thursday. Djokovic, the world No. 1 and defending Australian Open champion, was a 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 winner over Santiago Giraldo. He won about three-quarters of the points on serve -- facing two break points but none after the first set -- and 52 percent of the points receiving. Murray, seeded fourth this year, took a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 decision from Edouard Roger-Vasselin. He was good on 68 percent of his first serves, winning 85 percent of the points in those situations. The only break point he faced came in the third set. Fifth-seeded David Ferrer played almost 3 1/2 hours before escaping a challenge from Robin Sweeting 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. The first set alone took 69 minutes. No. 6-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Ricardo Mello 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 and ninth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic rallied for a 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 win over James Duckworth. Five men's seeds exited the draw Thursday. That included No. 15 Andy Roddick, who won his first set but suffered a leg injury and retired after Lleyton Hewitt went up 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Julien Benneteau ousted his French countryman 12th-seeded Gilles Simon 7-5, 7-6 (10-8), 1-6, 3-6, 6-3 in 4 1/4-hour match and Mikhail Kukushkin beat 19th-seeded Viktor Troicki 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Federico Gil advanced with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over 26th-seeded Marcel Granollers and Michael Llodra edged 32nd-seeded Alex Bogomolov Jr 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-4. No. 14-seeded Gael Monfils defeated Thomaz Bellucci 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 and joined 17th-seed Richard Gasquet, No. 24 Kei Nishikori, No. 23 Milos Raonic and 27th-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela, all of whom won Thursday, in the third round. In the lone match between unseeded players, Nicolas Mahut beat Tatsuma Ito 1-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-2, 6-2.