Andy Murray's bid to remould his game on clay starts with victory

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The world No20, preparing for next month's French Open in Paris, took the first set on a tie-break. He then raced into a 5-2 lead in the second, only to be pegged back to 5-4 before sealing victory on his second match point.

Murray, who went into the match with a record of only four wins from 13 matches on clay, now plays Italy's Filippo Volandri. They last met in Hamburg last year, when the British No1 was leading 5-1 but then suffered a wrist injury that forced him to miss Paris and Wimbledon.

After coming through against Lopez, Murray said: "It's important to be realistic with the first match on the clay and not to go for too much. The game plan worked well. My concentration was good throughout the whole match."

Murray has added clay-court expert and former world No2 Alex Corretja to his back-up team. And, despite today's victory, the Spaniard said: "We need to take things slow with Andy on clay and we cannot expect miracles. We have to be humble and I am sure he will realise he can play on this surface.

"Andy is already a good player but there is big room for improvement. On clay, the important thing is to play lots of matches.

"To win on the surface you need to suffer because you may have to hit 20 winners to settle a 50-shot rally. Andy gets mad on court but I have told him you don't need to be perfect every shot, just keep running.

"He is so talented he will be back in the top 10, for sure. We need to be patient and if you allow yourself to stress out then you get nerves, upset and grey hairs like me."

Murray's goals this year are to be successful on clay and become a contender at the Grand Slams. He said: "I am more than happy for people to underestimate me on clay because I know I can play well on the surface."