The home athlete dropped just two games to win 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 in 84 minutes and progress in the competition to set up a match against Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut.

Murray, who has now won 15 matches in a row at the venue, having also won the Olympic gold medal there during London 2012, broke eight times, saved the only three break points against him and had 13 unforced errors.

"I wanted to make sure that when I was on top I finished the sets off," he said.

"It helps not to have expended too much energy.

"If you can finish matches quickly it definitely helps in the long run.

"You put in a lot of hours of hard work, and it hurts a lot of the time.

"So when you're in a position to win a match like this, you want to do it as quickly as possible."

Novak Djokovic was put through his paces by Radek Štěpánek but the Serb ultimately defeated his opponent to make it through to the Wimbledon third round ©AFP/Getty Images


Serbia's Novak Djokovic was, however, given a scare by Radek Štěpánek of the Czech Republic in a match lasting more than three hours.

Djokovic ultimately held off his challenger 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6 to reach the third round on the Wimbledon turf.

"We know each other's game really well," Djokovic said.

"I was two sets up.

"I had some break-point chances in the third and should have closed it out in the third-set tiebreak.

"But credit to him for fighting.

"He's 35 years old and still moving very well and surface wise grass is probably his most preferred.

"He loves to engage the crowd.

"It was fun to be part of it."

Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov eased into the third round after beating Australian Luke Saville 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, as did Czech Tomáš Berdych after overcoming Bernard Tomic of Australia 4-6, 7-6, 7-6, 6-1 in two-and-a-half hours.

Elsewhere, it was not such good news for Spanish number seven David Ferrer, who became the highest seeded men's player to go out so far after his 6-7, 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 defeat at the hands of Russia's Andrey Kuznetsov.

Venus Williams laboured to a second round victory over Kurumi Nara ©Getty Images


Meanwhile, in the women's tournament, American five-time women's champion Venus Williams defeated Japan's Kurumi Nara 7-6, 6-1 to make it past the second round.

"It's definitely a step in the right direction," Williams said.

"The thing that I just have to really work on is being on tour consistently and playing tournaments."

She will now face Czech Petra Kvitová, who booked her place in the third round by thrashing Germany's Mona Barthel 6-2, 6-0 in 55 minutes.

China's Li Na also progressed to the third round by overcoming Austria's Yvonne Meusburger 6-2, 6-2, alongside Poland's Agnieszka Radwańska, who defeated Australian Casey Dellacqua 6-4, 6-0.

However, former semi-finalist and two-time Grand Slam winner Victoria Azarenka of Belarus made an early exit after her 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 loss to Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
June 2014: Nadal cruises through to second round at Wimbledon with 700th career win
June 2014: Murray begins Wimbledon title defence with straight sets win
June 2014: Murray returns to scene of historic win as Wimbledon Championships get underway