Melbourne, Jan 21 (IANS): No.6 seed Andy Murray showed imperious form in overpowering Australia's Marinko Matosevic 6-1, 6-3, 6-2, making just 12 unforced errors to reach the men's singles third round of the Australian Open tennis tournament Wednesday.

The Briton, 27, won in one hour and 42 minutes under sweltering heat conditions at the Margaret Court Arena. He will play Portugal's Joao Sousa in the last 32 stage.

“I definitely started quite quickly today. I was timing the ball well on the return and serving well from the beginning of the match, and it helped a lot because, you know, obviously the crowd were behind him,” Murray said after the match Wednesday.

Murray said he recognised early in the proceedings that his opponent was not in his elements and played with a lot of variety to make it difficult for him.

“When I noticed his timing was a bit off I felt like I played quite smart and used a lot of variety; didn't give him the same ball twice in a row,” he explained.

“I defended well, which is something - if you want to win these tournaments, you need to defend well these days. It's a very important part of the game. That's something that I did well.”