Andy Murray's crop is a touch severe, the mood calm. It may have something to do with him qualifying for the Masters Cup for the first time, that Scotland is the proposed venue for Great Britain's next Davis Cup venture, that he is happily playing doubles this week here in Madrid with Jamie, his brother ... or maybe it is just that there is much to be pleased about.

An outstretched left arm appeared at the window behind where Andy was chatting yesterday and offered a gesture that might, in some quarters, have been construed as hostile. The arm was familiar, the face hidden from view, but if it was Jamie, it was a signal suggesting that the pair are back to behaving as young brothers will.

That is welcome news. Jamie has not won a match with a male partner since the first round of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August and needs something to feel good about at the end of a fraught year. Although the Murrays could not have asked for a tougher first round, against Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clément, the 2007 Wimbledon champions from France, who beat them in Beijing, causing friction between the brothers, that they are playing here - and plan to do the same in the final Masters Series event, in Paris, this month - enhances Britain's prospects in the Davis Cup against Ukraine in March.

Their spats have come at a cost. There is no need for Andy to be angry with anyone. Times could not be better, he is back at the Mutua Madrileña Masters where, in distinct patches, he has played some of his finest tennis, where the ball flies on to the racket at a decent speed and where his section of the draw is not terribly fearsome.

A bye grants the No 4 seed a second-round match against either Nicolas Almagro, the Spaniard who defeated him in the last 32 of the French Open in May, or a qualifier. He is seeded to meet Andy Roddick in the quarter-finals, with a potential US Open final rematch with Roger Federer in the last four. He is very much a part of the quartet at the head of the game this year with Rafael Nadal, acclaimed the new world No 1 with a presentation in front of his adoring fans yesterday, Federer and Novak Djokovic.

How each contends after a couple of weeks of rest and reinvigoration - especially as they are the only four to have qualified for the Masters Cup in Shanghai - is the most fascinating element of this championship, the last to be staged indoors before it is switched to the spring, at the Caja Mágica, a new facility of 16 clay courts across the Rio Manzanares.

Murray knows he has taken a leap in status after his performance in New York, where he became the first British-born man to reach a grand-slam tournament final since John Lloyd at the 1977 Australian Open. Lloyd, the Davis Cup captain, will have been gratified to hear his No 1 player speaking in such an upbeat manner about playing doubles, having chosen, controversially, not to select him against Austria last month.

“When Jamie and I first started together on the tour, we played a decent amount together,” Andy said. “We'd play a couple of weeks in a row at a time and we did OK. Then Jamie started to play more and more with doubles specialists. When I started playing with him after he'd been playing with the specialists, I found it a different game.

"It was tough for me to start playing like a doubles specialist and it was tough for him staying put and taking control of his own side of the court. It's a different way of playing. There was a lot of criticism about Ross [Hutchins] and Jamie playing together [against Austria]. They are doubles specialists and have a doubles coach as well.

“So where is the cut-off? If the team is ranked 30 in the world, should they play in front of me and Jamie or in front of me and Ross or whoever the combination is? The guys who are ranked 30 in the world [in doubles] are very good, but I would pick myself to play over a guy who is 30 in doubles.”

Murray revealed that Birmingham was the first choice for the Ukraine tie, but the National Exhibition Centre and National Indoor Arena are booked, leaving his home nation as the favourite, with Glasgow or Edinburgh the likely host city.

Anne Keothavong won the inaugural Barnstaple Open in Devon, beating Alberta Brianti 6-4, 6-2. The British No 1, who has risen to No 80 in the world, did not drop a set all tournament.