by Our Sports Desk

ANDY MURRAY dropped just seven games in breezing past Marinko Matosevic to reach the third round of the French Open at Roland Garros.

Australian Matosevic was given the nickname “Mad Dog” at home and is known for his on-court antics but the Wimbledon champion would not have expected too much trouble against a player he had beaten easily twice before and so it proved.

The seventh seed wrapped up a 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 victory in an hour and 56 minutes.

Murray is likely to face a significantly greater test in the next round against 28th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, who won their only previous match on clay four years ago.

There was no sign courtside yesterday of Amelie Mauresmo, the former Wimbledon champion whose presence at Murray’s victory over Andrey Golubev in round one led to speculation she could be his new coach.

The match was played on Court One and Murray made a fine start with a break of serve in the opening game.

The Scot was the first opponent Matosevic had ever faced in the second round of a grand slam, the 28-year-old having finally won a main-draw match on Tuesday at the 13th attempt.

After a slow start Matosevic began to play better and put some pressure on Murray, and the British No 1 had to dig himself out of a hole down 0-40 in the eighth game.

Having come through that sticky moment, Murray then forced a set point on the Matosevic serve, which he took when his opponent sent a backhand flying long.

Both men had chances at the start of the second set but it was Murray who took his to lead 2-0.

The third set started with the longest game of the match but after 16 minutes and five break points it ended with Murray winning.

The Scot wobbled slightly within sight of the finish line when Matosevic broke serve for the first time in the match, but he hit straight back and took his first match point, appropriately with a backhand return winner.

Rafael Nadal was close to his ruthless best in beating 20-year-old Dominic Thiem, one of the game’s brightest young talents, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.

Fourth seed David Ferrer, who lost his first grand slam final to Nadal 12 months ago, eased into the third round with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Italy’s Simone Bolelli.

In the next round there will be a clash of the giants between 6ft 11in Ivo Karlovic and 6ft 8in Kevin Anderson, who both came through in straight sets.