Murray overcomes Copil to reach Madrid third round

World number one Andy Murray.

Andy Murray moved into the Madrid Open third round with a 6-4 6-3 victory over resolute Romanian Marius Copil on Tuesday.

Despite a creditable performance from the wildcard, a break in each set from Murray proved enough to see him through.

Murray will face Borna Coric or the winner of the first-round match between Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Lucas Pouille in the last 16, as he seeks to reach the final for the third year in succession.

Copil acquitted himself well in what was only his fourth match against a top-10 opponent.

Despite being made to survive two break points in his opening service game, he kept pace with Murray until the Scot broke to take the opening set 6-4.

Copil seemed unfazed by that late disappointment and a wonderful backhand winner helped him win a service game to love as he pulled level at 1-1 in the second set.

The world number 104 was in danger of throwing away a 40-0 advantage when he allowed Murray to come back to deuce in the fourth game, but he clinched it with a powerful shot that wound up striking Manolo Santana - the man after whom the court is named - in the stands.

Manolo Santana is NOT the guy you want to hit Marius, especially after he gave you the wildcard...#MMOPEN pic.twitter.com/ScBR7s877u

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) May 9, 2017

Four-time grand slam champion Santana brushed off the incident with good humour, but there was no smile on Copil's face when a series of unforced errors saw Murray go 4-2 in front.

A comfortable hold in the next sent Murray one away from victory, before the world number one made sure of the win on his own serve.