ANDY MURRAY revealed he struggled with the windy conditions on the Margaret Court arena, despite securing his passage into the third round of the Australian Open with a straight-sets win over Marc Gicquel, on Wednesday.

The fifth seed looked untroubled as he took just under two hours to overcome the 32-year-old Frenchman 6-1 6-4 6-3 and book a place in the last 32, where he will meet Florent Serra.

But, afterwards, Murray revealed he had struggled to adapt to the outdoor conditions after playing his first match against Kevin Anderson under the Rod Laver Arena roof on a rainy opening day.

“The wind was the hardest part. Obviously, it was quite a good atmosphere, quite a lot of noise, a lot of flags,”

said Murray, whose only leadup event was also indoors, at the Hopman Cup, in Perth.

“I think I did well to keep my concentration, but the wind was the trickiest part because it’s kind of like a bowl – the wind gets trapped in there and swirls around.

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

Murray raced through the opening set in 23 minutes, but his progress was slowed as he struggled for consistency on his serve.

He was forced to fight back from love-40 down in the sixth game of the second set, but then rattled off four out of five first serves to clinch the game.

Murray was broken in the third set as Gicquel was rewarded for his doggedness.

But the Scot broke back immediately to ensure his authority on the match.