Nadal moves on to third round at Open

NEW YORK - Even Rafael Nadal felt compelled to applaud when his second-round opponent in the U.S. Open hit a spectacular, full-sprint winner and was left doing a split at the net.

The shot put Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan within two points of tying the match at a set apiece. He couldn't manage to close the deal, though - a recurring theme for Nadal's game-but-outclassed foil in the No. 1-seeded Spaniard's 6-2, 7-6 (5), 7-5 victory Friday night.

Nadal, an eight-time major champion, is trying to complete a career Grand Slam, and he reached the third round at Flushing Meadows for the sixth consecutive year. He's never been past the semifinals, in which he lost in 2008 and 2009.

Nadal saved seven of seven break points against Istomin, a rare example of an ATP player whose mother is his coach.

On his way to victory at Louis Armstrong Stadium on Friday, the highest-seeded American man remaining in the U.S. Open, No. 18 John Isner, could hear the wild cheering and chanting at the adjacent Grandstand in support of another American man, Ryan Harrison, a qualifier who was the lowest-ranked (220) and youngest (18) player still in the tournament.

Isner, striving to be known for more than winning the longest tennis match in history, reached the third round by beating Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4.

Harrison, striving to show he belongs at this level, came as close as possible to winning without doing so, wasting three match points in the fifth-set tiebreaker and losing, 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6), to Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine.

"I'm trying to hopefully get to the top 10, so I feel like one match doesn't make or break that," Harrison said, doing his best to look on the bright side. "It's the experience of playing these types of matches that is really going to help me to get there."

This was the second Grand Slam tournament of Harrison's nascent career, and the first in which he won a match - and what a victory it was, an upset of 15th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic.

For Isner, this is the first major tournament he has played since Wimbledon in June, when he hit a record 113 aces during an 11-hour-plus, 183-game, first-round marathon spread over three days. He beat Nicolas Mahut in a 70-68 fifth set, and while appreciative of the significance of that match, Isner is quite ready to move on.

"I don't want that to be, like, the lasting image of my career," the 6-foot-9 Isner said after finishing with 24 aces against the 63d-ranked Chiudinelli. "So that's up to me to make it not that way. It's up to me to do well in big tournaments, tournaments such as this."

He can match his best Grand Slam showing if he beats No. 12 Mikhail Youzhny to make it to the fourth round.

Isner, who won an NCAA championship at the University of Georgia, was joined in the third round by No. 20 Sam Querrey, a 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 winner over Marcel Granollers of Spain. Of 15 U.S. men originally in the draw, four remain: Isner, Querrey, No. 19 Mardy Fish, and wild-card James Blake. Fish and Blake play third-round matches Saturday.

"Querrey will face No. 4 Andy Murray of Britain, the 2008 runner-up in New York. Murray beat Jamaica's Dustin Brown, 7-5, 6-3, 6-0.

In a match late Thursday night, No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated 52d-ranked Philipp Petzschner of Germany, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (6).

Venus Williams easily got past 185th-ranked qualifier Mandy Minella of Luxembourg, 6-2, 6-1, on Friday.

"I had no idea what my opponent played like," Williams said afterward, but apparently it didn't matter. She accumulated a 29-5 advantage in winners while her injured sister Serena watched from the stands.

Next for the older Williams is No. 16 Shahar Peer of Israel, who beat No. 19 Flavia Pennetta of Italy, 6-4, 6-4.