ANDY MURRAY enjoyed a comfortable passage through his opening match at the Barcelona Open with a straight-sets victory over Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky yesterday.

Murray, who is seeded second behind Rafael Nadal, received a bye through the first round and he was a convincing winner in his second-round match as he defeated world No.68 Stakhovsky 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 18 minutes.

The world No.4 will next face either Robin Haase or Santiago Giraldo in the third round in what is his first appearance in the Spanish clay-court tournament in four years.

Murray, who opened his clay campaign by reaching the quarter-finals in Monte Carlo last week before losing to Tomas Berdych, survived a brief scare in the open-ing game when he needed to save a break point on his own serve.

After that Murray rarely looked in serious trouble against an opponent he had beaten in each of their previous three meetings.