Andy Murray set up a third-round encounter with Rafael Nadal at the Hamburg Masters as he breezed past Gilles Simon of France 6-3 6-3.

Murray lost his only previous meeting with Simon last year, but the Scot set the tone for a comprehensive win by breaking serve in the very first game.

Spaniard Nadal beat Italy's Potito Starace 6-4 7-6 (8-6).

World number one Roger Federer strolled past Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-1 6-3, but seventh seed James Blake crashed out.

"It was a very good win," said Murray.

"He's beaten a lot of top guys on clay and is a very tough clay-court player. I was happy to finish it off so professionally."

Murray will need to up his game against the player acknowledged as the world's best on clay, but there were some promising signs in his emphatic win over Simon.

A fantastic lob in the opening game sealed his opening-game break, and he went on to hold serve comfortably and then break again as he established a 4-1 lead.

Simon stopped the rot by taking his first break point to reduce his arrears, but Murray had already done the crucial damage and went on to seal the set 6-3 with another break.

The Scot then won his third game in a row to get off the mark in the second set before Simon levelled.

Simon showed superb form in flashes, but unforced errors let Murray keep his nose in front.

Murray benefitted from a series of Simon errors to break and take a 5-3 lead and he went on to recover from 40-0 down in the final game to seal the victory.

American Blake lost 6-4 3-6 3-6 to Serb Janko Tipsarevic.