Any painful reminders don't worry Murray as he thumps Tursunov

A year after exiting the German Open first round in excruciating pain when he severely damaged a wrist tendon, he registered a blissfully uneventful victory at the same stage as he dismissed Russia's Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-1 in 92 minutes.

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It's all in the wrist: Murray fires a double-handed backhand against Tursunov

By doing so, Murray kept alive the prospect of celebrating a much happier landmark — his 21st birthday on Thursday — with a match against Rafael Nadal.

First he must defeat guileful Frenchman Gilles Simon on Wednesday but, whatever happens, thinking about his wrist will not have any bearing on the outcome.

"It was the last thing on my mind today," he said. "It didn't affect me at all and I thought my concentration was good all match. My wrist was still a bit sore at the end of last year but this season it hasn't bothered me."

Murray was fairly non-plussed about having to discuss the subject at all — his reticence is understandable — and in one sense Monday did bring the relief of closure: he will not be asked about it in future.

Promoted to the Rothenbaum's main arena, away from the scene of last year's mishap on court one (whoops, there we go mentioning it again), he played a smart match to defuse Tursunov's power.

The Russian is best known to British audiences as the man who so often got drawn against Tim Henman and made a habit of beating him. He was also Henman's final victim in a tour match, at the U.S. Open last year.

An immensely powerful ball-striker, Tursunov is the type who can suddenly start steamrollering opponents, but Murray never let him settle and cleverly deprived him of the pace on which he likes to feed.

Such a rich mix of play, together with the deft execution of lobs and drop-shots, is Murray at his most seductive and the victory completed a full set of wins against Tursunov on the sport's four main surfaces — hard, grass, indoor carpet and clay.

If anything, the British No 1 could have won the first set more easily, once he had saved two points that would have seen his opponent break back for 2-2.

"There's more than one way to dictate a match," said Murray. "I like to dictate sometimes by mixing the pace up and getting the other guy to make more errors. I don't want them getting comfortable in what they are doing."

Although Russian, Tursunov's tennis development took place in California and his subsequent discomfort on clay showed in a multitude of donated points. Simon, who defeated Murray in Rome last year, will be a trickier customer.

Novak Djokovic arrived on Monday from Rome knowing he has an outside chance this week to overtake Nadal in the world No 2 position.

His Italian Open victory has put him within striking distance and he is relatively fresh because his opponents pulled out with injury in both his quarter-final and semi-final at the Foro Italico.

There is a furore among the players about the three compulsory clay court Masters events being shoehorned into a four-week period. Djokovic said: "What happened in Rome was for a reason, getting injured is a real worry with this schedule."