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Murray will be relieved to have advanced with the minimum of effort against a dangerous opponent, but the sixth seed won't be so happy that he missed out on the chance to get some much-needed practice on grass.

This was Murray's first singles tournament on the surface for almost two years after he missed the last grass-court campaign with a wrist injury.

The Scot, Britain's only hope of success at Wimbledon, started well enough and broke in the first game thanks to a Grosjean double fault.

Grosjean, twice a Queen's finalist in 2003 and 2004, immediately called for treatment at the change-over and resumed only after having his left leg heavily strapped above his knee.

He looked slightly restricted as Murray held serve in the next game and signalled that he would have to call it quits.

Fernando Verdasco, seeded nine, crashed out against Croatia's Mario Ancic in the second round.

Ancic, the last man to beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon, is one of the most dangerous unseeded players in the draw and he underlined that status with a 7-6 (6) 6-4 win over the Spaniard.

Paul-Henri Mathieu, the French seventh seed, survived a tough examination from Croatia's Marin Cilic to reach round three, eventually prevailing 6-3 3-6 6-4.

He won the first set after an early break but Cilic responded by taking the second. Mathieu was broken as he served for the match in the final set, but Cilic squandered his chance to stay alive as the Frenchman broke to go through.

Ivo Karlovic served 19 aces in his 6-3 6-2 second round win over Australia's Joseph Sirianni.

Nicolas Mahut resumed his role as Queen's giant-killer with a dramatic victory over Spain's Feliciano Lopez, seeded 14th, as the rest of the first round ties concluded.

Mahut, who beat Rafa Nadal and Ivan Ljubicic en route to finishing as Queen's runner-up last year, comfortably took the first set. But Lopez recovered from 4-2 down in the second set tie-break to level the match.

The final set went with serve all the way to another tie-break. It started in dramatic fashion as Lopez protested furiously when his mini-break was ruled out because of a noise from the public address system which distracted Mahut during the rally.

That proved the turning point as Mahut capitalised on Lopez's red mist to take the tie-break.

Fernando Gonzalez held off a brave challenge from British qualifier Richard Bloomfield to go through 7-6 (5) 6-3.

Gonzalez, the Chilean world number 15, was pushed all the way as Bloomfield played way above his lowly 412th position in the world rankings.

A shock looked on the cards when Bloomfield took a 4-1 lead in the first set tie-break. He lost his nerve though and Gonzalez took six of the next seven points to snatch the set.

Gonzalez, who plays Marat Safin next, had to work hard again in the second set but went through after breaking in the eighth game.

British wildcard Daniel Evans endured a nightmare debut on the ATP Tour as the teenager was routed by Belgium's Xavier Malisse 6-1 6-1 in just 49 minutes.

Malisse proved his ability by reaching the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2002. In contrast, when it comes to competing with top-class opponents, Evans is almost as green as the perfectly manicured Queen's Club lawns.

The 18-year-old looked struck by stage-fright from the start as he committed a string of unforced errors and was blown away with embarrassing ease by the Belgian, who now plays Australia's Lleyton Hewitt.

France's Olivier Patience beat Sam Querrey, the American 16th seed, 7-5 5-7 6-4 and next takes on Japan's Kei Nishikori.

American John Isner, who stands 6ft 9in tall, won the battle of the giants as he defeated South Africa's 6ft 7in Kevin Anderson , 7-6 (5) 6-4.

Italy's Andreas Seppi, the 12th seed, saw off Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-3 4-6 6-1 and now plays Latvian teenager Ernests Gulbis.

Mardy Fish, seeded 15th, had few problems with France's Edouard Roger-Vasselin in his 6-1 6-4 win.

Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic defeated America's Bobby Reynolds 6-1 7-5 to set up a clash against Janko Tipsarevic.

Italian Simone Bolelli advanced to a meeting with Richard Gasquet, the French fifth seed, after Frank Dancevic was forced to retired at 2-2 in their first set with a wrist injury.

Follow LIVE coverage of the Artois Championships on eurosport.yahoo.com and British Eurosport all week!

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AFP