Britain's Murray returns the ball during his match against Fernando Verdasco at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 indoor tournament in Paris on Nov 2, 2016. [Photo/IC]

It was a 16th victory in a row for Murray, who is bidding for a fourth straight title after winning trophies in Beijing, Shanghai and Vienna.

Murray will play 13th seeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille in the last 16 on Thursday. The pair have met twice in 2016 with Murray winning the clashes on clay at the Italian Open in Rome in May and on hard court at the Shanghai Masters in October.

"Lucas is one of the best of the young players coming through at the moment," said Murray. "He's just outside the top 10 but he'll be inside it very soon. I had to play well to beat him in Shanghai and my level will have to be good if I want to win."

The Scot needs to at least reach the final here to stand a chance of overhauling Novak Djokovic on Monday as the Serbian began his defending campaign with a stright sets defeat of Gilles Muller.