Tennis: Murray has too much va va voom for Frenchman Serra

The British No.1 and tournament fifth seed has not dropped a set so far in his three matches, and today beat Frenchman Florent Serra 7-5, 6-1, 6-4.

His next opponent will be American John Isner, who today saw off Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5).

The Scot accepts that Isner, who is a man on form, having won the Heineken Open in Auckland last week, will be his biggest test so far in the year's opening grand slam. "Isner won last week and beat (Andy] Roddick at the US Open. He gives guys a lot of problems. He's 6ft 9in with a huge serve," he explained.

Today's match with Serra was largely one-sided, despite Murray seeing his serve broken twice in the opening set.

"It was good," Murray said. "The first set was a bit closer than it needed to be. I had chances to go 4-0, didn't take them, and he started to get into it a little bit. But to win in straight sets is really important."

Murray had only been broken twice in his first two matches but saw Serra twice win against the Dunblane player's serve in the opening set as the 22-year-old was put under pressure for the first time in the tournament. He responded to the challenge emphatically, though, as he broke Serra for a third time to take the opening set in 52 minutes.

Murray then raced through the second set and when he broke Serra's opening two service games in the third, the result had suddenly become inevitable.

Murray's victory meant he at least fulfilled his modest pre- tournament ambition of matching his best result in Australia, the fourth round.

The Scot began with a bang, serving three consecutive aces and then breaking his opponent's first service game for the third match running to forge ahead 3-0.

But Murray then hit a mid-set lull and Serra broke back, albeit after Murray pushed a simple volley wide to characterise a sloppy service game.

Murray seemingly dragged himself out of his malaise with a superb running forehand winner and followed it with two passing shots to reclaim his advantage at 5-3.

But again Serra broke back and a tie-break loomed likely until Murray broke for the third time, clinching the set when Serra pushed a low volley into the net. The players then traded service games before Murray strung together the next five to take the second set 6-1 in 28 minutes.

Murray broke the 28-year-old Frenchman's opening two service games of the third set to suck the life out of his challenge.

Murray won through to the last 16 for the seventh consecutive grand slam in imperious style, by winning match point with his trademark drop-shot. In other matches, Roddick recovered from a set down to defeat Spain's Feliciano Lopez 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) and advance to the fourth round.

Lopez, who had never beaten Roddick in five previous meetings, saved two match points in the fourth set tie-breaker, one of which incensed the American after camera views showed the Spaniard had reached over the net to put away a volley.

The seventh-seeded Roddick held firm, however, and

will next face Chilean Fernando Gonzalez after the 11th seed defeated Kazakhstan's Evgeny Korolev in five sets.