Andy Murray eased to a 6-4 7-6 victory over Marcel Granollers to progress to the third round at Indian Wells.

The British number one had not played on the ATP Tour since suffering a defeat against Novak Djokovic in the final of Australian Open and has since become a father for the first time.

Murray, who was handed a first-round bye, looked off the pace at the start of the second round encounter in California, despite having helped Great Britain to a Davis Cup win against Japan last week.

However, after handing the first break of the match to Granollers to trail 3-1, he soon found his rhythm and got back to 3-3.

Murray broke the Spaniard for a second time and then held his serve to win the first set in 43 minutes.

The second set went with serve to a tie-break and Murray secured three match points but only needed one to win the tie in an hour and 40 minutes.

Afterwards Murray said of Granollers on the ATP’s official website:
“He’s got quite a different game. He’s a very smart player and often makes the right decisions. He made it tough for me.

“When it gets windy here it can be difficult to play really well, I think. It does make it challenging.

Murray will now face Argentina’s Federico Delbonis in the third round and the Scot is 1.01 to win the tie, while his opponent can be backed at 13.00 to cause an upset.