Murray eases past Karlovic at French Open

British second seed Andy Murray's French Open campaign gathered pace as he made light work of big serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic to reach the fourth round with a 6-1 6-4 7-6 (3) victory on Friday.

After consecutive five-setters in his first two rounds, Murray gave a masterclass in nullifying the game's biggest serve, breaking twice in succession at the start of the match to pave the way for a routine victory.

Murray will face either big serving American 15th seed John Isner or Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili next.

The ATP's statistics showed Karlovic had won 95 per cent of his service games in the last year, more than any other player, but that counted for little on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

Karlovic was 4-0 behind in quick time as Murray toyed with the 2.1 metre tall player who was the oldest man to reach the third round of a grand slam for 25 years.

He even managed to send a couple of lobs looping over the head of Karlovic who looked jaded after coming through a five-setter in round two.

Having taken the second set with a single break, Murray's progress slowed in the third as Karlovic found his range to force a tie break.

But Murray stayed focused and wrapped up a no-nonsense win on the first match point when the 27th seeded Karlovic sprayed a forehand well wide.