Kim Clijters beat Petra Kvitova and Hurricane Earl with a quick victory before rain briefly suspended play at the US Open.
The forecast 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 delay lasted 25 minutes
Clijsters, the defending 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 behind 3-0 early.
"A match like this today probably gives me more satisfaction, because I beat a good player withouteven playing my best tennis," Clijsters said.
American teenager Ryan Harrison played some of the best tennis of his young life, but he's still learning how to beat a good player. 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 escaped with a 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6) victory in 4 hours, 13 minutes.
"Obviously I'm not the happiest person in the world right now," Harrison said. "But looking back on it, it was a great experience. My ranking is 220 in the world right now, and I'm trying to hopefully get to the top 10. So I feel like one match doesn't make or break that. It's the experience of playing these type of matches that is really going to help me to get there."
Harrison, who is based in Bradenton, Fla., had upset 15th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic in the first round. Fans packed the grandstand and peered in from neighboring Louis Armstrong Stadium to roar for Harrison, the youngest and lowest-ranked player left in the draw.
Fourth-seeded Andy Murray defeated Jamaica's Dustin Brown 7-5, 6-3, 6-0 to move into the third round. John Isner is still the highest-ranked American man left in the tournament after defeating Switzerland's Marco Chiudinelli 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4. The 18th-seeded Isner had 24 aces and his serves reached 144 mph
Venus Williams and Rafael Nadal were to play at night.
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