As first impressions go, this one took a bit of beating. Gleaming in white, scrubbed up a treat, the ball pinging from the middle of the strings, Andy Murray played almost perfect tennis on the first day of the new year. An exhibition event it may have been – quite an exhibition it was.

One of the last moves performed by Murray’s previous management company, Ace Group, was to sign him for the Capitala World Championship, a six-man event in Abu Dhabi, as a trailer for the campaign proper. The world’s best two players, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, were given byes into the semi-finals but the remaining four, Murray, James Blake, Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko were required to play a match each to join them.

Davydenko, the Russian, dusted off Roddick in straight sets and then came Murray to play Blake, to whom he had lost in their only previous meeting, on clay in Hamburg in the spring of 2006. Less than an hour later, it was job done having completed a 6-2, 6-2 victory, the quality of which took even Murray by surprise.

Today he plays Federer, a reprise of his penultimate match of 2008, when they met in a glorious round-robin match in the Masters Cup in Shanghai. Murray, who had already assured himself of a place in the semi-finals, dredged every last ounce of courage to win on his eighth match point after more than three hours of spellbinding competition. Those who might argue that there is not so much on today’s meeting do not quite understand the depths of Murray’s desire.

“Exhibition – what exhibition?” will be his approach. Murray, 21, is 4-2 ahead in his head-to-head meetings with Federer and with the Australian Open starting in 17 days’ time, markers are there to be laid. Federer is in much better shape physically than he was this time last year, when he was in the initial throes of the glandular fever that was to affect his progress through a sticky first part of 2008.

“There are such a large number of challenges laying ahead – facing them, working hard and giving my best to succeed is precisely why I love my job so much,” the Swiss world No 2 said this week.

“Looking back at the past 365 days, a lot of unforgettable experiences come to mind. There were, of course, the tough moments I had to go through. I faced an unexpectedly difficult training period and exhausting start of the season due to illness precisely 12 months ago. I spent a great deal of the year battling with the lack of practice and hours of training that I faced at the time.”

The first steps in any year are usually tentative but Federer will have noted how effective Murray looked in every department yesterday, bar a couple of attempted drop shots that did not quite hit the mark. Some things don’t change.

Lleyton Hewitt plays mixed doubles with Casey Dellacqua in the Hopman Cup on Monday in Perth, his first tournament in five months. The 2002 Wimbledon champion, 27, has been dogged by hip problems but John Newcombe, a fellow former world No 1, is confident that Hewitt can improve on his present ranking of No 67. “Give him 12 months and if he stays healthy, I’d be surprised if he’s not in the top ten,” Newcombe said.