Top seed Andy Murray quickly found his feet on grass at Queen's Club on Wednesday, posting a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Italy's Andreas Seppi to reach the third round of the Wimbledon warm-up tournament.
Fourth seed Gael Monfils withdrew with a wrist injury, handing Belgian Steve Darcis a walkover into the quarter-finals, while Croatian fifth seed Marin Cilic lost to qualifier Nicolas Mahut.
World number three Murray, who reached the quarter-finals of the French Open for the first time last week, will carry his country's hopes at Wimbledon later this month and his performance against Seppi was encouraging.
The Scot went through his full repertoire of angles, spins and power to subdue the 48th-ranked Seppi despite a brief lapse in the second set when he dropped his serve.
Murray, who had a first-round bye, brought up two match points with an audacious hooked forehand down the line from behind his body when Seppi served at 4-5 and wrapped up a routine victory at the first attempt.
"The first set was very good but I played one poor game to let him back in and after that he started playing better," the 22-year-old Murray told the BBC. "It was tricky conditions -- windy and very heavy -- so it's good to come through in two sets."
Cilic was bundled out 7-6, 7-6 by Mahut despite the Frenchman losing his favourite racket in the locker room before going on court.
"That's never happened to me before," said Mahut, who reached the final in 2007 when he lost to Andy Roddick. "I don't know what to think about that but luckily I had four other rackets in my bag."
Another Frenchman through was third seed Giles Simon who beat rising Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov 7-6, 7-6.
Lleyton Hewitt and American second seed Andy Roddick, both four-times champions at the tournament, will meet in Thursday's third round after the 15th-seeded Australian beat Portugal's Frederico Gil in three sets on Wednesday.
Murray will face Guillermo Garcia Lopez in the last 16 after the Spaniard put out Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.
Safin, Monfils pull out
Former world number one Marat Safin withdrew with a back injury, organisers said.
The Russian, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year, had been due to play Belgium's Xavier Malisse after receiving a bye in the first round.
Frenchman Gael Monfils, the fourth seed, also withdrew with a wrist injury sustained during his second-round victory over Andrey Golubev on Tuesday.
Steve Darcis of Belgium, who had been the third round opponent of Monfils, advanced to the quarter-finals on a walkover.
