Murray eases through

It was the second straight-sets win in a row for the in-form Briton, who is looming as a genuine contender to win the first grand slam of the year, though he conceded he needed to improve.

The result seemed a foregone conclusion after the fifth seed made a brilliant start, winning the opening five games with a series of crisp winners, but he lost his way somewhat in the second and third sets.

At times he was brilliant, unfurling a string of spectacular winners from all parts of the court, but on other occasions he made some sloppy errors that he blamed on the swirling wind in the uncovered Margaret Court Arena.

"It was quite a good atmosphere, quite a lot of noise, a lot of flags, people moving around and stuff. I think I did well to keep my concentration from that," the Scotsman said.

"But the wind was the trickiest part because it's kind of like a bowl, the court kind of gets trapped in there and swirls around.

"Sometimes you think the ball is going one direction, and the wind is going one direction, and then in the middle of the point it can change pretty quickly.

"That was tough. But I was happy with the way I played."

Frenchman Gicquel, ranked 57th in the world, threatened to fight his way back into the match but each time Murray was able to regain control and wrap up a comfortable victory.

"The first set was good and then it was tough after that," Murray said. "It was a good performance, solid match, under difficult conditions, so I was happy. This is the highest level of the sport. That's going to happen."

The 22-year-old next plays Florent Serra after the Frenchman scraped past Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 3-6 6-4 5-7 7-6 7-5.

Elena Baltacha also progressed to the third round with an impressive 6-2 7-5 win over Ukraine's 30th seed Kateryna Bondaranko.

The British number one, ranked 51 places lower than Bondarenko at 83 in the world, raced out to a 3-0 lead in the opening set before holding on to take it at the first attempt with another break.

The Ukranian looked as though she may force a deciding set when she ran out to a 3-0 lead of her own at the start of the second set. But Baltacha, who also reached the third round at Melbourne Park in 2005, recovered to break back and level at 3-3 before serving out the match at 7-5.

"I feel fantastic," Baltacha said. "I knew I had to play well, and I went out with a game plan to attack the forehand. I really did believe I could beat her...my tennis has improved quite a few gears and I knew that I could just go out there and swing freely and just take my game to her and I did that so I'm very delighted."

But Katie O'Brien crashed out of the tournament after a battling 6-2 6-2 loss to eighth seed JelenaJankovic, who simply had too much power for the world number 87.