Andy Murray beats Juan Monaco in straight sets in Cincinnati

Olympic champion Andy Murray had little trouble in beating Juan Monaco in his first match at the Cincinnati Open.

Murray, who did need treatment on a shoulder injury during the match, saw off the Argentine 6-3 6-2 in much easier fashion than his Olympic Games final win over Monaco's compatriot Juan Martin del Potro on Sunday.

The top seed got off to a fairly slow start with the first six games shared but Murray needed just one break in game eight to take the opening set of their second-round encounter.

Murray, twice a Cincinnati champion, broke again in the opening game of the second set, only for Monaco to break straight back, but a third successive dropped service game saw the British No 1 take a lead he would never give up.

Another break left Monaco with an uphill task to get back into the match and he would not prove up to it as Murray eased to victory in 77 minutes.

The Scot told atpworldtour.com: "It's really humid here, quite different conditions to Rio. The court here is pretty fast. Rio was a lot slower than this.

"It took a bit of time to get into it, but I did all right. I did two short sessions yesterday and two short sessions today.

"I sometimes find that rather than doing one long session, if you're going into new conditions, it's a bit easier to do a couple of shorter sessions. I feel like I get my timing a bit quicker that way."

Murray will now take on big-serving South African Kevin Anderson for a place in the quarter-finals after he shocked 13th seed Richard Gasquet 6-2 6-4.