Murray on song in strong clay start

Andy Murray sprang to life yesterday as the Scot began his clay-court season with a 6-0, 6-3 hammering of Serb Viktor Troicki to reach the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters.

He was joined by Fernando Verdasco as the Spaniard beat Ivan Dodig, of Croatia, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Under the watchful eye of coach Ivan Lendl, third seed Murray was ruthless in his demolition of Troicki, who gave him a brief fright on clay at last year’s French Open.

“The goal is Paris, that’s what we are working on now,” said Murray, who broke five times on his way to victory.

“Usually, it takes me a few matches to get comfortable on clay.

“Today was really good. The match was very good, I got off to a good start... sometimes it’s a close, tight, first set, the first match on clay.

“Anything can happen, it’s very easy on the clay to start rushing and making mistakes. But because I got ahead, I didn’t need to do that.”

Murray, who said he was feeling increasingly comfortable on clay, showed poise as he put behind him his finals loss at the Miami Masters just over a fortnight ago to Novak Djokovic, the Serbian who is top seed in the principality.