Merciless Murray rains on Raonic's parade

Andy Murray of Britain celebrates breaking serve in the third set against Milos Raonic of Canada at the U.S. Open men's singles tennis tournament in New York, September 3, 2012.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Olympic champion Andy Murray beat the rain at Flushing Meadows by rushing past Milos Raonic of Canada 6-4 6-4 6-2 on Monday to book his place in the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open tennis championships.

Third-seeded Murray's fourth round match bumped a women's doubles contest back in the order of play to avoid a forecasted rainstorm, but the Briton left little to chance as he bolted to victory in exactly two hours.

"I hit my passing shots well, which was an important part," said Murray, who is gunning for his first grand slam title.

"He was hitting a lot of big serves and I was just trying to react the best I could. Sometimes you get a racket on it and sometimes you don't. Tonight I was getting my racket on it.

"We knew the rain was coming, and I'm glad we got it done."

Murray scored a single break against the huge server in each of the first two sets and then marched to victory over the 15th seed with a brilliant display of shot-making.

The rains came bang on after his match ended.

"I know it just started raining just now, so it was perfect timing to finish," said the Scotsman, who did not face a single breakpoint in the match.

Murray conceded he was far from feeling fresh at the end of a long summer that included his golden triumph over Roger Federer on the grass at the All England Club in the Olympic final.

"I think a lot of the players will be looking forward to a break after the tournament. It's the last major event of the season. So I want to make sure I leave everything out there on the court.

"Today was by far my best match of the tournament. Hopefully I'll get a good rest in tonight and tomorrow, get pumped and ready for the quarter-finals because you're only a few sets away from maybe competing for a grand slam."

Big-hitting Canadian Raonic belted 14 aces, reaching 140 miles per hour on his first serves and landing 70 percent of them, but could only shake his head at Murray's level of play.

"He was just too good, unfortunately, because I was playing well. Too good."

Next up for Murray will be 12th-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia, a 7-5 6-4 6-0 winner against Kei Nishikori of Japan.

(Editing by Ossian Shine/Ian Ransom)