Murray breaks Llodra's challenge with ease

British fourth seed Andy Murray overcame Frenchman Michael Llodra with ease to reach the fourth round at the Australian Open on Saturday.

The two-time finalist defeated the 46th-ranked Llodra 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 in 1hr 49min on Hisense Arena and will play Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan in the round of 16 on Monday.

Murray and Llodra produced crowd-pleasing rallies with some amazing angled net pickups for winning points.

The Scot, who has lost to Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the past two Melbourne finals, was always in control of the loose Frenchman, breaking his serve six times.

Murray hit an impressive 48 winners with the backhand his predominant scorer with 19 winners.

"There were a lot of fun rallies, especially towards the end of the second set, beginning of the third set and he played well," Murray said.

"Every point seemed to be a fun point. He was coming up with some unbelievable gets on the volleys and I was managing to dig up a lot at the net. It was a fun tennis match which isn't normal at the grand slams.

"(Coach) Ivan Lendl would have preferred a few more bread and butter points, serve and forehand finish, but that was my style of tennis tonight and I hope everyone enjoyed it."