Three-time grand slam champion Andy Murray of the Great Britain easily passed through the opening round of the ongoing 2016 China Open in Beijing after disposing Andreas Seppi of Italy on Tuesday despite some game delays due to the rainy weather.

The 29-year-old British tennis superstar flaunted his dominance over the Italian player with a hard-fought straight-set 6-2, 7-5 triumph. The victory secured Murray, who is looking for a strong finish in the season, to reach the No. 1 spot, a second round berth and scored his eighth win over Seppi, according to the website of the ATP World Tour.

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In the 2006 Aegon Open Nottingham, Seppi won their first ATP World Tour encounter. However, Murray had the strings of victories over the Italian since then.

"I feel like I'm able to get a lot of chances when he's serving, give myself a lot of opportunities to break," Murray, who currently ranks No. 2 in the latest ATP world ranking result, said referring to his Italian opponent after the match.

"He's got very good timing, hits the ball very clean off both sides," the tournament's top seeded player added. "I try to use some variety and not let him get into a rhythm. That's worked well for me." 

According to Xinhua, Murray consumed only 34 minutes of tennis action to wrap up the opening set, and although the 32-year-old Seppi, who was a 2011 US Open quarterfinalist, made his British opponent work harder in the second set, Murray still managed to prevail and closed it out at 7-5 in just 52 minutes of play.

The Briton was able to break Seppi's serve twice during the first set of the opening round match.

Murray will be facing Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia in the second round of the Beijing-based tennis event. The 25-year-old Kutnetsov defeated his compatriot Konstantin Kravchuk in two straight sets 6-1, 6-4.

Murray currently leads its head-to-head matchup against the right-handed (two-handed backhand) Russian at 1-0.

Tagsandy murray, atp tour, atp rankings, 2016 china open, Andreas Seppi, grand slam