Andy Murray got his season off to a winning start, taking little to get into his stride with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Kenny De Schepper in the Hopman Cup.

The result gave Great Britain a 1-0 lead over France in their opening round-robin match, with the Scot preparing for the Australian Open later this month.

Murray broke the Frenchman in the opening game of the match, and broke once more in the fifth game to take out a 4-1 lead.

From there the Dunblane ace never looked back, racing to a 4-1 lead in the second set as well.

In the end, it took Murray just 59 minutes to see out the victory - putting Great Britain on the front-foot in the tie against France.

However, Heather Watson's three-set defeat to Caroline Garcia ensured the doubles would be pivotal. And the British pair prevailed after recovering from a second-set wobble to win 6-2 5-7 10-6.

After easing through the first set and breaking early in the second, it appeared Britain were coasting to victory but Murray had his serve broken in the fifth game and Watson in the 11th as France took it to a first-to-10 tie-break.

But the British pair recovered and never trailed in the decider as they made a winning start in the round-robin stage.

"I played well," he told the tournament's official website. "Everything was working pretty good. I was able to finish a lot of points up at the net.

"It's quite a quick surface here so if you can get the first strike in the rallies it's quite easy to sort of stay on top of the point.

"I enjoy it here and that's why I keep coming back. I'll be back next year as well."