Andy Murray safely through to round four in Paris

Andy Murray put his early-round struggles behind him at Roland Garros to comfortably see off Ivo Karlovic in straight sets this afternoon.

© AFP

The British number one was made to work hard in rounds one and two, being pushed all the way by both Radek Stepanek and wildcard entry Mathias Bourgue before progressing through.

There was to be no such trouble for Murray this time around, though, as he triumphed 6-1 6-4 7-6(3) in a time of less than two hours to book his place in round four of the Grand Slam event.

It was plain sailing for the Scotsman in the opening set as he held throughout, dropping just one game to grab an early foothold in the contest as he quickly raced into a lead that he would not relinquish.

The second set went in a similar manner, too, with Karlovic - who had to come through his own five-set battle in the last round - planting a forehand volley wide of the mark to hand the first game to his opponent.

Murray was in cruise control at times, racing through the games and taking the second of three set points to put further distance between himself and the Croat, remaining well on course for a third-successive semi-final appearance in Paris.

Perhaps the only disappointment for the second seed was that he was pushed all the way in what proved to be the final set, but he once again breezed through when racking up a 3-0 lead and eventually seeing things through with a 7-3 tie-break win.

John Isner and Teymuraz Gabashvili face off later today to determine Murray's opponent at the round of 16 stage.