Murray strolls past Seppi at Queen's

(GETTY IMAGES)

Andy Murray eased into the third round of the AEGON Championships with a straight sets victory over Italian Andreas Seppi.

Murray won the opening set 6-1 in just 22 minutes and although Seppi rallied in the second, Murray crucially broke his serve to win it 6-4.

The British number one, hoping to win his first major title on grass, was forced to expend some early energy in the opening game which the serving Italian won comfortably.

But Seppi found it difficult to return Murray's serve in the following game and the home favourite easily restored parity on the scoreboard.

Murray, the first Briton to be top seed in the tournament, broke Seppi's serve in the third game thanks to an untimely double fault from the Italian.

The Scot repeated the feat in the fifth game without his opponent managing to score a single point.

Murray quickly went two-up in the second set but Seppi fought back to break the Briton's serve for the first time in the third game.

The Italian followed up his success by holding serve in the fourth game to put him back in the match at 2-2.

But after a disastrous showing in the opening set, Seppi was now beginning to pose Murray all kinds of problems.

The number one seed had to dig deep to ensure he held his serve in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead.

But the Italian, ranked number 48 in the world, made it 4-4 and for the first time in the match, the Scot looked uncomfortable.

However, Seppi's hopes of breaking Murray's serve in the next game petered out when the world number three delivered a stunning forehand to the baseline.

And he secured a place in the third round after just 59 minutes on court when he broke Seppi's serve to take the match.