ON A DAY when a gusting wind tricked the world's finest tennis players, Andy Murray rustled up something of a whirlwind of his own.

Murray fairly motored into the third round of the French Open with his best performance on clay to date, beating Argentinian Jose Acasuso 6- 4 6-0 6-4 in one hour and 38 minutes.

By any measure that is a man in a hurry and coming after his five-set, first-round tribulations against 17- year-old French wild card Jonathan Eysseric, it was an impressive transformation by a player who admitted he had something to prove.

Murray said: I felt my performances on clay have been decent this year but I keep getting questioned why I'm not doing better. I wanted to show I could beat a good clay court player.

Acasuso might not be a Federer or a Nadal but I showed I can play on clay. I wanted to show myself I can do it.

To win in straight sets, not lose my serve and break five or six times doesn't happen too often. It's not too often a match goes as well as that.

I'm very pleased, it was a great performance. I was very aggressive and my shot selection was great.'' Murray's only grumble was an altercation with umpire Pascal Maria at the end of a match which began at shortly before 7pm local time, complaining that his racket had hit a linesman's head at deuce in the final game.

Acasuso won that point and while in the end it did not matter, Murray is not one to leave without making his point.

Murray said: It's never happened to me before. I hit him hard on his head or shoulder and couldn't control the ball. The umpire said if you do hit the line judge he can't do anything about it.'' The bottom line, however, is that on this form Murray could yet achieve at least his first ambition here of reaching the second week at a tournament where he had not won a match until this week.

So much for the warning from Murray's coach, former two-times French Open finalist Alex Corretja, that Acasuso was a genuine clay court menace. Next up tomorrow is a much tougher proposition against Spain's Nicolas Almagro, who Murray admitted is one of the top players on clay''.