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, the second seed 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 Inner or Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili next.
The ATM’s statistics showed Karol had won 95 percent of his service games in the last year, more than any other player, but that counted for little on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
Karol was 4-0 behind in quick time as Murray toyed with the 6ft 11in 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 Karol 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 Karol 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 Karol sprayed a forehand well wide.
