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Tomic provides no trouble for Murray

Andy Murray was hardly tested during Saturday's victory © AP

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Andy Murray eased into the third round of the Sony Open on Saturday, overcoming a shaky start as opponent Bernard Tomic virtually handed him breaks of serve at inopportune times.

Murray, the second seed this week in Miami, stumbled out of the blocks somewhat against the 20-year-old Australian but, after avoiding a scare in his second service game, quickly gained the upper hand as Tomic appeared to lack the stomach for the fight he was faced with.

Broken in the first set so soon after his near-miss on Murray's serve Tomic could not find a way back into the stanza and, after dropping his serve once again following a litany of errors to start the second set, was quickly overwhelmed in an eventual 6-3 6-1 success.

"It is unbelievably hot out here," Murray said afterwards. "If you play low percentage tennis it is hard to win. Perhaps I'm more comfortable out here than some, because I know the court really well."

For a few fleeting minutes, Tomic actually appeared to be in the ascendancy - enjoying the first positive moments of the match as he challenged Murray on his own serve. In a game that lasted nearly nine minutes Murray simply could not close out matters; being challenged at deuce time and time again as Tomic showed real flair with his groundstrokes.

Eventually, however, Murray eked out the game - and that seemed to turn the contest, with Tomic quickly becoming disinterested with proceedings, especially as a few challenges began to go against him.

Murray quickly clinched the opening set and, after breaking early in the second, found matters increasingly easy as Tomic appeared to chase down fewer balls and show only moderate ambition to get back into the contest.

A second, reinforcing break for Murray followed and from that point the victory was simply a matter of time.

"No matter how you start the match you need to make your opponent work hard," Murray added, in comments that could perhaps have been aimed at Tomic. "I didn't play well but I chased the ball hard and made him hit five or six more balls than he probably wanted to each time."

Murray will now face another highly-regarded young player, Grigor Dimitrov, in the third round - after the Hungarian's second-round opponent Simone Bolelli was forced to withdraw due to injury early in the second set of their meeting.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.