Third seed Novak Djokovic sealed his place in the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters - where he will meet Andy Murray - with a 6-3 6-3 win over Ivan Ljubicic.

Ljubicic, who showed no mercy in knocking out Gustavo Kuerten on Monday, was helpless on centre court against Australian Open champion Djokovic.

Following an early exchange of breaks, Djokovic stole his opponent's serve in the fifth game and held on to take the first set.

After breaking again early in the second, he saved two break points in the eighth game before wrapping up victory when Ljubicic netted a forehand.

"It was not easy, we had only met two years ago in Zagreb in an indoor tournament" said Djokovic.

Both players use to practice together and Djokovic said their friendship played a role.

"That is why I got off to a nervous start but then I played at a very good level," he said.

Earlier, Marat Safin produced some impressive tennis on his way to beating Xavier Malisse 6-3 6-2.

The Russian showed glimpses of previous good form as he booked a date in the second round with Spaniard David Ferrer.

But early on it was not all plain sailing for Safin, and he was forced to save three break points at 2-2 before going on to break in the next game and take a 4-2 lead.

Safin proceeded to take the first set 6-3 and followed on with an early break in first game of the second.

Malisse broke back to 3-1 but the Belgian could not use that as a springboard to recovery and Safin's break in the next game set the Russian up for victory.

France's miserable run at the claycourt tournament continued with Marc Gicquel being thrashed 6-0 6-4 by Finn Jarkko Nieminen , who set up a second-round encounter with Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Sebastien Grosjean retired with a thigh injury from his first-round match against Croatia's Ivo Karlovic when trailing 4-6 6-4 4-1.

Gilles Simon suffered a 6-1 6-1 drubbing by Spain's Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo.

There was no scare for 12th seed Tommy Robredo, who went through with a 6-4 7-5 defeat of Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.

Eurosport / Reuters