ANDY MURRAY made a positive start to his US Open campaign with a straight-sets victory over 24th seed Francisco Cerundolo in New York.

The 35-year-old went into the tournament having only won one match on the North American hard courts this season and with concerns over persistent cramping but this proved to be a relatively straightforward outing in humid conditions.

Argentinian Cerundolo has won the majority of his ranking points on clay and Murray had to grind his way through plenty of long rallies on his way to a 7-5 6-3 6-3 victory, with the only real negative a failure to serve out all three sets.