Andy Murray eased into the third round of the Miami Masters courtesy of a straight-sets triumph over Alejandro Falla on Friday.
The British No.1, back in action for the first time since his second round disappointment at Indian Wells, was rarely troubled as he posted a 6-2 6-3 victory over his Columbian opponent.
A victory at this event was long overdue for Murray after he suffered straight-sets losses at the first hurdle against Mardy Fish in 2010 and the unheralded Alex Bogomolov Jr last year.
And his mindset coming into the tournament would not have been helped by his surprise second-round defeat by Guillermo Garcia-Lopez at Indian Wells.
However, the presence of coach Ivan Lendl this week has boosted the Scot and the 24-year-old was quickly into his stride against the world number 71.
After holding his opening service game Murray forced an instant break of serve to take a 2-0 lead.
Although Falla hit back in the next, getting back on serve with a break of his own, his respite was brief as Murray broke again to move ahead 4-2 before a third break wrapped up the opening set.
Murray continued to look in sound touch at the start of the second set, moving a break up early on to establish a 3-0 lead. However, as before Falla found a way to get back on level terms as he broke the Scot for a second time to trail 3-4.
Again, though, Murray's response was swift and decisive, breaking to love in the next to leave himself serving for the match, which duly did to set up a third-round clash against either Canadian 26th-seed Milos Raonic or French qualifier Arnaud Clement.
There was a hard-fought 7-5 7-5 win for sixth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga against Xavier Malisse of Belgium, while the ninth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia saw off Argentina's David Nalbandian 7-5 6-3.
Gilles Simon, the 13th seed from France, defeated Spain's Roberto Bautista-Agut 6-4 6-2, 18th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine beat Croatia's Antonio Veic 6-4 7-5, while 22nd-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer was a winner in three sets against Holland's Robin Haase, 7-6 (7/2) 3-6 6-4.
Second seed Rafael Nadal had no trouble in the evening session, tearing to a 6-2 6-0 win against Colombian Santiago Giraldo.
