Andy Murray rolled with the punches, the tumbles and a few moments of inspired tennis from Ernests Gulbis of Latvia last night to secure his place in the second round of the US Open in front of a crowd that saved its hugest cheer for a ballboy who went spinning into the photographers' pit and came out unscathed.

The greatest imperative of the first week of a grand slam tournament is to survive it without too many alarms and loss of resources and that was exactly what the British No 1 achieved, winning 7-5, 6-3, 7-5 in two hours and 17 minutes.

Gulbis played the flashier tennis, made the greater assortment of errors, especially on his forehand, and, having been unable to win consecutive matches since he reached a career high ranking of No 38 a year ago, went to his expected exit. This excellent talent has found reaching the heady heights expected of him difficult to handle.

Murray, on the other hand, is thriving in his exalted position as the No 2 seed. In truth, he had this match well in hand, surviving the occasional tripwire of dropping his serve by responding with a subtlety and variety of shots and surety of purpose that are his trademarks.

Of course, there were the usual tweaks and grimaces and once he went crashing full legnth into Gulbis's courtside gear, chasing a dropshot. He was none the worse at the end and meets Paul Capdeville of Chile for the first time, in the second round.

"You left some blood out there," Brad Gilbert, his former coach and now a TV courtside reporter, said. That's the way they like their sport in New York.

Speaking of tumbles, there was a huge intake of breath in the seventh game of the third set when Jonathan Moore, a ballboy, chasing a loose ball, lost his footing and went head first over the advertising barrier. A few seconds passed, the crowd could only see the top of his head and the television replays held up the game for a couple of minutes as he returned to his place at the back of the court.

These are the kind of interruptions one has to handle and Murray never lost his focus. He did, though, forget his promise not to smile on court when the scoreboard flashed up the result of one Gulbis service challenge which was at least three inches the wrong side of the line.

For the most part, he was intense and rigorous, sending down a dozen aces and looking as secure as ever from the back of the court. He needed five set points to win the opening set - which was always going to be vital - clinching it with a superb running forehand crosscourt winner, thumped down an ace to secure the second and his backhand crosscourt winner for the decisive break in the third was the finest shot of the match.

A further reminder that it is always dangerous to look too far forward came during the time that Murray was doing his business. Ivo Karlovic, the 6'10" Croatian, was regarded as a dangerous third round threat and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, who gave Murray such a fright at this year's Wimbledon, was touted as a potential fourth round opponent once again. They are both on their way home, Karlovic beaten by Spain's Ivan Navarro and Wawrinka losing in five sets to the veteran Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador.

"I thought it was good," Murray said of his opening performance. "I thought it was a high standard of match. I had a few chances in the third set to go up breaks. I had 0-30 in the first game, maybe 0-40 in the second service game then a couple of times in the first two sets where I was up a break and got broken straight back pretty much. I was giving him chances to break me. When it was on serve and I needed to I didn't give him many chances at all. When I needed to I upped my game.

"My concentration could have been a bit better but for a first match I thought it was very good because he played very well, a lot better than at Wimbledon."

Murray knows his second-round opponent from training with him when he was 16-years-old. "He won comfortably today so it's going to be a tough match but I played well tonight," Murray said.