Novak Djokovic showed he is ready to fight Andy Murray for the world number three ranking after an emphatic victory.

He brushed aside his second-round opponent at the Monte Carlo Masters.

Serbian Djokovic is currently next in line behind Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, but fourth-ranked Murray is closing the gap quickly and stands to make advances during the clay-court season.

Murray had little success on the surface in 2008 but that is expected to change over the coming weeks, while Djokovic has a mountain of points to defend.

Today both men won their opening matches on clay in Monte Carlo without too much alarm.

Djokovic thrashed Spain's Oscar Hernandez 6-1 6-2, while Murray overcame a sluggish start to win 6-3 6-2 against Romanian Victor Hanescu.

With Djokovic a resident of Monte Carlo, he was eager to impress but felt surprised by how well he performed against Hernandez, having just come off the US hardcourt season.

He said: "I didn't quite expect to perform that well, considering I haven't had any matches on this surface, and I had very little time to make this transition.

"But I was really playing aggressively and patiently at the same time.

"That combination is really important for this surface."

Murray was broken twice at the start of his match as the first four games all went against serve, but he eventually gained control to continue his impressive season so far.

"I'm very happy with it," Murray said when asked about his performance.

"The start was tough, he played a few good shots and broke me a couple of times but I'm happy with the way I moved.

"I was getting good shape on my shots and didn't make too many mistakes. I could have served a little better but apart from that I'm very happy."

Murray confirmed his status as the form player on tour by beating Djokovic in the final of the Miami Masters earlier this month.

That gave him a third title of the season and the biggest of his career so far.

The Scot has so far struggled to match his success on hard courts and grass on clay, failing even to reach the quarter-finals in any event last year.

But the 21-year-old feels today's win will help him rediscover the different type of movement needed on the game's slowest surface.

"It's just practice, you need to let it happen," Murray told Sky Sports 1.

"It's easy on clay when the ball is out wide to panic a little bit but you cut the corners much better if you slide into the shot.

"The top players do that very well and I've been working on that the last few days."

French players Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon made early exits.

Ninth seed Monfils was thrashed 6-3 6-1 by Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic in their first-round encounter while Simon, seeded number six, lost his second-round match with German qualifier Andreas Beck 7-5 6-1.

Sixteenth seed Nicolas Almagro crashed out 7-6 (8/6) 4-6 7-6 (7/5) to Albert Montanes, but Argentina's David Nalbandian avoided an upset after seeing off Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 3-6 6-3.