Andy Murray opened the new tennis season the way he ended the last one - with a crushing win playing under the Union Jack.
Murray cruised to victory over France's Kenny de Schepper at the Hopman Cup on Monday night, just over a month after leading Great Britain to their first Davis Cup triumph in 79 years.
The Scot took just 58 minutes to help the Brits to a 1-0 lead with the 6-2 6-2 romp.
Heather Watson now plays Caroline Garcia in the women's singles.
Murray broke de Schepper in the opening game and took another break to claim the opener 6-2 in 29 minutes.
In the second he rattled off five straight games for exactly the same result.
Murray said he was happy with the outing against an opponent who only replaced Gael Monfils in the French team on the eve of the tournament.
"It was good and I played well. Everything was working pretty good and I was able to dictate a lot of points and finish off a lot of points at the net," Murray said.
"It's quite a quick surface here so if you can get the first strike in the rallies it's quite easy to stay on top of the point if you force yourself to come forward, and I did that well."
Murray had been the hero in Great Britain's rare Davis Cup triumph, taking out both of his singles matches against Belgium without dropping a set and also teaming with brother Jamie to capture the vital doubles rubber.
Share
