Relief for Murray on stormy day

Fifth seed Andy Murray was happy to quickly wrap up his first-round match with qualifier Kevin Anderson on a wet and windy opening day at the Australian Open.

The Scot conceded just four games as he swept aside the 6ft 8in South African 6-1 6-1 6-2. The match was played under the Rod Laver Arena roof because of the conditions outside. Play had been halted on four separate occasions on the outside courts and Murray admitted he was happy to avoid such delays and book his place in the second round.

"It's good to get the match out of the way because it's a long day for a lot of the players because of the weather outside," said Murray, who admitted he had expected more of a fight from South Africa's top-ranked player. "Obviously it's good to get finished quickly."

He added: "It is a good start. He's a tough player. He's beaten (Novak) Djokovic before in Miami and he's won a tour event.

"He's 6ft 8in so I wasn't expecting it to be easy. I just got off to a good start which helped. I broke him straightaway which always makes a big difference."

Murray was quickly out of the blocks as he raced into a 5-0 lead before taking the first set in 29 minutes to set the pattern for the remainder of the match.

The 22-year-old never gave his opponent a chance from there as he broke six of Anderson's first eight service games to drain any pre-match optimism he may have retained after coming through qualifying, where he was not broken once, to reach the main draw.

The only negative in Murray's display was on serve where he only managed to get a paltry 35% of first services in play, but the Scot hardly had reason to be downbeat.

"I'd like to have served bit better," he said. "But I feel good. I got here 10 days earlier than I've done in the last three years.

"I feel good and I think that match proved it."