Andy Murray was thrilled with his performance against Gilles Simon as he set up a third-round showdown with Rafael Nadal at the Hamburg Masters.

Britain's No.1 was expected to be given a stern test by clay-court specialist Simon but raced to a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

With Nadal lying in wait on Murray's 21st birthday today, the Scot knew a dominant display was just what he needed.

"It's a very good win," said Murray. "He's beaten a lot of top guys on clay. He beat former French Open champion Gaston Gaudio here a couple of years ago, and Tommy Robredo, so he's a very tough clay-court player.

"He's won a couple of tournaments on clay as well so I was really happy I managed to finish if off in two sets and won so comfortably. I did everything right and got the balance between playing aggressive and defensive."

Murray began in the best possible fashion by breaking the Frenchman's serve in the first game. Two more breaks took him to the first set, with an erratic Simon managing only a single success on the 15th seed's delivery.

The second set proved a lot tighter as the first seven games went with serve but a shocking game from Simon handed the crucial advantage to Murray.

The Scot looked like he may respond in kind after slipping to 0-40 but five points in a row saw him clinch victory in just over an hour and a quarter.

Murray, who beat Russia's Dmitry Tursunov in the first round on Monday, has struggled to impose himself on clay before this week but he feels improvement is simply a case of gaining the necessary experience.

"It's about getting a bit more confidence playing on clay. Everyone keeps asking me why I can't win any matches on clay but I've had a couple of good wins this week and hopefully I can keep it going in my next match. These guys play tough. You have to be very patient.

"I was very young and very inexperienced the last couple of years and wasn't quite sure what I was doing, but now I've played seven, eight matches on the clay over the past four or five weeks and I'm feeling much more comfortable, and I think that showed on the court today because he's a difficult player."

Nadal, he world No.2, lost the final to Roger Federer last season, ending his record 81-match winning run on clay, and may need to at least match that performance to keep ahead of Novak Djokovic in the rankings. After defending his titles in Monte Carlo and Barcelona, Nadal lost in the second round in Rome last week, blaming blisters for a below-par performance.

He again struggled in beating Italy's Potito Starace yesterday, letting a 2-0 lead slip in the second set before eventually coming through 6-4, 7-6 (8-6).

Federer opened his defence with an effortless 6-1, 6-3 win over Jarkko Nieminen, needing just 57 minutes to rack up his ninth straight-sets victory from nine meetings with the Finn, who, as usual, was outclassed by his Swiss opponent.

Marat Safin, a former world No.1, maintained his momentum at the tournament to reach the third round with a 7-5, 6-4 win over the ninth seed Tomas Berdych but the American No.7 seed, James Blake, fell to the Serb Janko Tipsarevic 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours.

The Croat Ivo Karlovic saw off the 13th-seeded Robredo 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 while Stanislas Wawrinka, of Switzerland, beaten finalist in Rome last week, went down 7-5, 7-5 to Germany's Nicolas Kiefer.

nAna Ivanovic, the top seed from Serbia, was beaten in her opening match in the Italian Open. She lost 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to the Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova. "I felt quite flat out there and I found it a struggle to find my rhythm," she said.

Venus Williams, the former world No.1, beat Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-4, 6-1 while her sister Serena also advanced with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko.