Far from a breeze as Murray and Baltacha progress

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 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 and people moving around," said Murray, whose only lead-up event was also indoors at the Hopman Cup in Perth.

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

"Sometimes you think the ball is going one direction, and the wind is going one direction and then in the middle of the point it can change pretty quickly. That was tough.

"But I was happy with the way I played."

British No 1 women's player Elena Baltacha had earlier upset 30th-seed Kateryna Bondarenko to ensure she would at least match her best result at a grand slam.

Baltacha defied a rankings difference of over 50 places to win the second-round match 6-2 7-5 in one hour and 34 minutes.

The 26-year-old's gutsy win means she will play in the third round of a grand slam for just the third time in her career after advancing to the last 32 at Melbourne Park in 2005 and at Wimbledon in 2002.

It was also just the fourth win of her career against a top-50 rival and after reaching a career-high ranking of 83 earlier this month she said: "It's confidence. I used to look back. I used to do that a lot. I'm fed up doing that.

"It's all about looking forwards. I just kept thinking 'you are good enough'. I feel fantastic. I knew I had to play well."

Baltacha faces the daunting prospect of playing No 2 seed Dinara Safina in the third round.