World number three Murray, who withdrew from the Basel tournament last week because of injury, had little difficulty with Chardy after racing into a 4-0 lead in the opening set.

He then broke in the fifth game of the second set to secure a 17th consecutive win and set up a meeting with 13th seed Andy Roddick in the next round.

Murray completed a stunning hat-trick of titles in as many weeks on the Asian swing of the ATP tour after winning the Shanghai Masters on Oct. 16. He also won in Bangkok and Tokyo.

Serbian Janko Tipsarevic kept his slim hopes of making it to the ATP World Tour finals alive when the 11th seed thrashed American Alex Bogomolov Jr 6-1 6-0 to reach the third round.

Tipsarevic, who needs to win the title if he is to grab one of the three remaining spots for the Nov. 20-27 event at the O2 in London, will next face Czech Tomas Berdych.

The fifth-seeded Berdych will qualify if he reaches the quarter-finals at Bercy or if American Mardy Fish, seeded seven, loses to German Florian Mayer later on Wednesday.