6.54pm: Evening world! Kim Clijsters is roaring through her match – 5-0 in the second set, having won the first 6-3 – so Murray should be on shortly and it's about time I settled into my seat and got ready for the ride. You can still read Kevin Mitchell's match preview here, if you'd like.
And as I write, Clijsters completes a suddenly-very-straightforward victory, after a fairly troubled start, and it's time for Murray to tie his shoelaces and introduce himself to Dustin Brown.
7.00pm: Other than a fairly brief glimpse at Wimbledon, when his potential Davis Cup defection was the issue of the day, I'm afraid I don't know any more than Murray about Brown. The next few hours will be a learning experience for the both of us.
7.03pm: The good news: it's not very hot. The bad news: it's raining.
7.13pm: Looks like a brief and light shower – nobody's come off the other courts. Meanwhile, if you like football at all take a look at this unbelievable scorcher from today's Kazakhstan v Turkey game.
7.13pm: In fact, they're out already. Action imminent.
7.19pm: "I'm a bit disappointed to see that Andy Murray isn't wearing a Bulgarian flag headband," writes Gary Naylor, as Greg Rusedski predicts an easy win for Murray in "not the prettiest of matches".
7.20pm: Murray's going to serve first. Balls in hand. Action.
First set: Murray* 1-0 Brown Still a lot of empty seats as Murray holds serve, not as easily as he might have liked. One deuce required. Impressive returns from both sides from Brown.
First set: Murray 1-1 Brown* Brown's first serve is a massive 130mph+ ace, which Murray challenged but was well in. His second is another massive ace which Murray also challenged, and was on the line. That's one challenge left for the set. The third serve Murray gets a racket on, but the ball doesn't make it over the net. An easy hold.
First set: Murray* 2-1 Brown Three aces in that game, held to love. More worrying, the rain seems to have returned.
7.30pm: The players leave the court. The skyline looks grey and dreary in New York. Time to check that weather forecast.
7.33pm: Looks like this might be a light but lingering shower. I'll bring you updates as and when I have them, of course.
7.37pm: There's no doubt who the crowd will be behind. Brown is obviously not like the average tennis player, even when he doesn't turn up in a camper van. He's got an interesting back-story, is tall, black, dreadlocked, genial and possesses one heck of a serve. But he's not, or rather has never been in the past, good enough to beat the top players.
7.41pm: "How is it that Flushing Meadows' courts are faster than Wimbledon's?" asks Gary Naylor. "Are the balls different? At Wimbledon (in person for the first time this year), I felt the balls were too heavy and "died" too much on the grass. The power game needs tempering, but pace on the ball – whatever the sport - improves the spectacle and favours the more skilful players." The balls are different, as it happens – Slazenger at Wimbledon, Wilson in New York. Indeed, even at the US Open there are different balls – I believe the men have a slightly more hard-wearing felt on theirs, even though they're only used for six games.
7.42pm: Meanwhile it's still raining, but not as heavily.
7.52pm: The rain has stopped, so more action imminent.
First set: Murray 2-2 Brown* No thunder aces from Brown but two points won with the help of his other trademark – forehand drop-shots.
First set: Murray* 3-2 Brown Straightforward hold for Murray, with one double fault. "Surely the faster courts are more about the surfaces than the balls. Wimbledon is of course grass whilst Flushing Meadows er ... isn´t," writes Trevor Holden from Portugal. There was a time, though, when grass was the fastest surface out there. As Wikipedia says: "Hard courts can vary in speed; they are faster than clay but not as fast as grass courts."
First set: Murray 3-3 Brown* Great touch-volley from Brown to win the first point. He then does the old Rusedski trick of demanding to have the same ball back for the next couple of points (until he loses one). Some further debate on the courts issue from a couple of years back here.
First set: Murray* 4-3 Brown This is really fun – very watchable, Brown producing some excellent shots when given the chance. He's more than just a service, that's for sure. And Jermain Defoe has given England a third-minute lead against Bulgaria.
First set: Murray 4-4 Brown* He's quite the showman, Brown. A flying double-handed punch-volley with the score delicately poised at 15-30 has the crowd whooping with delight. He's got a 100% record when he lands his first serve.
First set: Murray* 5-4 Brown "It's tennis on broadway out here," says Mark Petchey after a peach of a point – a booming forehand from Brown scrambled back by Murray, a drop shot also scrambled back, an underhit lob and eventually a smashed crosscourt pass from the Scot. No breaks or even a sniff.
First set: Murray 5-5 Brown* Murray complains to the umpire about Brown's habit of standing up throughout the changeover, then promptly sets up his first break point – defended successfully by Brown with the help of a killer serve. Brown seems entirely nerveless, volleying bang into the corner to win the game.
First set: Murray* 6-5 Brown Murray, from 30-30 and under some pressure, serves a perfect ace and then wins the game with a flying forehand power-volley. It's as if showmanship were contageous.
First set: Murray 7-5 Brown* Two excellent points from Murray puts him 0-30 up, but then he overhits an easy second-serve return. Next point, he improvises a perfect passing shot when he looked out of position to earn two set points. Brown serves one ace, but his second serve is weak and Murray is increasingly superior in open play.
Second set: Murray* 1-0 Brown. Murray leads by one set to love Brown has this really intertaining schtick of, whenever he's hit a weak, loopy shot that Murray will surely smash away for an easy winner, appearing to give up the point before coming back to life at the last moment. It's enough to keep him in the first point for an extra couple of shots. He later hits a totally awesome crosscourt winner, but it's his only point of the game.
Second set: Murray 2-0 Brown*. Murray leads by one set to love Suddenly, it's all going wrong for Brown. The wind seems to have picked up, and Brown appears to have reacted by serving off a lower toss. His serve is as a result not the weapon it was at the start of the game, and he's duly broken to 15.
Second set: Murray* 3-0 Brown. Murray leads by one set to love And Murray wins his own service game to love in about 60 seconds, with two aces.
Second set: Murray 4-0 Brown*. Murray leads by one set to love At 0-15, with the match threatening to disappear and Murray seemingly in control of the rally, Brown hits an inside-out cross-court forehand winner of immense beauty. The next point is won with a perfect topspin lob, and it's game (back) on. Briefly. Murray, though, has changed his gameplan, coming into the net when given the chance and daring Brown to pass him, which he can't very often.
Second set: Murray* 5-0 Brown. Murray leads by one set to love It's serve-and-volley now from Murray, which has a pleasingly retro charm. There's not much difference between Brown's early-match relaxed brilliance and his latter-day carefree laziness, but in eight out of 10 points he's looking totally useless now. Murray has won the last seven games.
Second set: Murray 5-1 Brown*. Murray leads by one set to love Brown finally stops the rot, though surely it's much too late to save this set. He was helped, though, by a few unforced errors from Murray.
Second set: Murray* 5-2 Brown. Murray leads by one set to love Murray saves Brown a challenge by volunteering that a ball was good, earning himself a round of applause from the crowd and a grateful wave from his opponent. It's good to know the crowd are still awake. He might come to regret it: Brown wins the replayed point, earns a single break point and converts.
Second set: Murray 5-3 Brown*. Murray leads by one set to love Brown's official support, up in the players' box, is singing to him between points. Literally, singing. We hear a refrain of Jimmy Cliff's You Can Go It If You Really Want after the first point, and it does look like he might really want.
Second set: Murray* 6-3 Brown. Murray leads by two sets to love It would have been bad, and stupid, and wrong for Murray to panic after losing three games on the spin. Fortunately, he doesn't. Though he's dropped his serve-volley tactics, he holds to love to take a two-set lead.
Third set: Murray 1-0 Brown*. Murray leads by two sets to love Murray is now punishing Brown's second serve at every opportunity – as he should, it's not much of a weapon.
Third set: Murray* 2-0 Brown. Murray leads by two sets to love A totally different match now, with Murray relaxed and Brown utterly defeated, content to unleash the occasional killer shot when he gets a decent chance but pretty much ready to give up on everything else.
Third set: Murray 3-0 Brown*. Murray leads by two sets to love Brown's forehand was really impressive in the first set. Where has it gone? Suddenly, straightforward shots are looping off the frame of the racket or being scooped 10 yards long. Only more rain can keep Murray here much longer.
Third set: Murray* 4-0 Brown. Murray leads by two sets to love Murray almost taunting Brown as he hits a perfect forehand drop-shot winner. This is really easy now. For all the talk of Brown's widespread fan appeal, the Arthur Ashe court is still a long way from being full, and the top tier is almost empty.
Third set: Murray 5-0 Brown*. Murray leads by two sets to love I'm afraid I spent about half that game looking at replays of a delicate Wayne Rooney chip at Wembley. But this was probably Brown's low-point. He won the first two points but thereafter served three double-faults. His first two serves of the match were brilliant aces, but there's been only one since the first set.
Third set: Murray* 6-0 Brown. Murray wins by three sets to love Only one match point required by Murray. Brown looked good at the start but when the wheels came off they really flew.
Final thoughts: A decent work-out for Murray, who spent about 45 minutes being genuinely tested before being allowed to coast into the third round. The stats are fairly telling: Brown in the first set: 54% of first serves in, five aces, 79% of first-serve points won; Brown in the second set: 38% of first serves in, no aces, 70% of first-serve points won; Brown in the third set: 42% of first serves in, one ace and 40% of first-serve points won. Murray will get a lot of credit for this result, but Brown simply fell apart.
Murray speaks: Murray takes credit for Brown's collapse – "It just took a little time to work out his serve," he shrugs. "Second and third sets were very good." On the balls debate, which we touched on earlier, he says: "They change balls at almost every tournament, which I don't think is great. The balls here are very, very light."
"I think they need to have a uniform ball throughout the hard-court season," agrees Rusedski. "Changing ball hurts your wrists, hurts your shoulders." It's amazing how little differences which you or I (I'm assuming you're not a world-class tennis player) wouldn't even notice are significant enough to actually cause injury to elite athletes. Anyway, Murray will go off, rest up and be ready to rock in round four. A potential champion? Frankly, Brown wasn't, in the end, good enough to help us find out.
