Fourth seed Murray was playing his first match here in Rome after receiving a bye into the second round and Belgian Malisse made Murray work hard to secure his place in the next round.

The Scot comfortably took the first set 6-2 after breaking Malisse' serve three times, only for his game to unravel in the second set and allow Malisse to dictate the points and take the second set by the same scoreline.

The two players were fairly evenly matched in the third but it was Murray who eventually secured the crucial break and went on to serve out the match with an ace to win 6-2 2-6 6-3 after one hour and 59 minutes.

"It was a tough match. I concentrated badly throughout and I've got to get better at it. When I settled down and focused I played some nice stuff but there were too many loose games." said Murray after the match.

"On this surface you need to be patient and work harder for every point. It's good to get through but it was too up and down. I just need to get the matches now. I need to get better - the main thing for me is the concentration."

Murray goes on to face the winner of the second round match between 15th-seed Victor Troicki of Serbia and Potito Starace of Italy.

Other winners in the ATP Rome Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Tuesday included 5th-seed Robin Soderling of Sweden who struggled past clay court specialist Fernando Verdasco of Spain 2-6 7-5 6-4, and 16th-seed Richard Gasquet of France who comfortably dispatched Russian qualifier Igor Andreev 6-1 6-2.

Gasquet will play the winner of the second round match between 3rd-seed Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga which takes place later this evening.