Rod Laver Arena/Melbourne Park, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia, 3 February 2016 | AAP

John Millman has backed up his excellent third round performance at the Australian Open by blitzing French wildcard Julien Benneteau in the first round at Open Sud de France.

Millman defeated the experienced Frenchman 6-3 6-0 with an impressive performance that lasted just over an hour.

Millman relied on excellent serving throughout the match to hit 11 aces and didn’t face a single break point in the win.

In the first set he took advantage of a singular break point on the Benneteau serve to take it 6-3 before blitzing through the second set, breaking the Frenchman at will.

Millman, who rose 17 places in the rankings to 78 in the world after his third round loss to Bernard Tomic at the Australian Open, will now face either fifth seed Gael Monfils or his fellow Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the second round.