Andy Murray marches into Rio Olympics pre-quarters

Defending champion Andy Murray produced a rich vein of form as he romped into the last-16 of the Rio Olympics event after claiming a comfortable win over Argentina's Juan Monaco in the men's singles event on Tuesday.

Murray, who is bidding to become the first man to win two Olympic singles golds, thrashed his Argentine opponent 6-3, 6-1 in the one-sided second round.

Reflecting on his performance, the world number two said that he played quite well from the back of the court while adding that he did not make much unforced errors as well, Sport24 reported.

Murray will now face either France's Benoit Paire or Fabio Fognini of Italy for a place in the quarter-finals.

Murray, however, also offered his sympathy to his long-time rival and top-ranked player Novak Djokovic, who made a shocking first-round exit at the hands of Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro.

The Briton insisted Del Potro is a really great player when he is fit and, therefore, he turned out to be tough on Djokovic in the 64-player draw.

Earlier, Djokovic was reduced to tears after suffering a 7-6(4), 7-6(2) loss to Del Potro in the men's Olympic tennis tournament on Sunday.