A Barclays Premier League footballer turned up in Birmingham yesterday. Aston Villa fans like Dan Evans would perhaps wearily note that it is one more than has turned up for them all season.

The man in question was Darren Fletcher and he was finding Andy Murray's serve as difficult to predict as the outcome of the Barclays Premier League title race. The West Brom captain - who earned a draw against Leicester on Tuesday night, only for the Foxes to actually gain a point on all their main rivals during this round of fixtures - is a friend of Jamie Murray's who turned up at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham for the ritual humiliation of having a procession of the World No 2's serves whizz past him. You could say it was a whole different ball game. "The standard was incredible," the Scotland international said. "When I was receiving I couldn't see the ball half the time, I was just taking a guess."

"I met Darren about a year and a half ago when he was at United and they were on tour in the States and I have just kept in touch since," explained Jamie. "So he just came over this morning to watch the boys hit some balls and hit a few himself."

You might have thought the younger Murray brother would be rather miffed when it comes to the subject of football right now. Hibs have hit a wall in their league hunt, although salvation could yet await in the cups and the play-offs, and now his English team Arsenal are fresh from squandering a further three points at home to Swansea. Last weekend they were going down tamely to Jamie's English side, Manchester United.

But the World No 2 revealed in fact that he is savouring the most open English top flight in years. Whether he would relish an outbreak of such sporting anarchy in world tennis, where he and the ATP tour's other big three have pretty much carved up the honours in recent times, is another question entirely.

"I think what's happening this year in the Premier is actually good to watch," said Andy. "A lot of the top teams have been struggling and, as a football fan, it's exciting to see different teams up there challenging.

"You'd expect the top teams at the end of the season to come through and be playing a little bit better than they are just now," he added. "But to see Leicester at the top of the league after 28 games and being favourites with the bookies to win it, it's incredible and I like seeing stories like that in sport, genuinely it's great.

"I hope that continues, that it's not so predictable what's going to happen every single year," he added, "but it would be nice if Arsenal could put a good run together because it's been a tough few weeks for me and Dom [Inglot]." Inglot is another long-suffering Arsenal fan in the group, although in truth James Ward is the main Gooner in the extended Davis Cup group.

The next chore for Arsenal is the small matter of a North London derby with title-chasing Tottenham on Saturday lunchtime, a match which Murray may be able to watch in part ahead of the doubles rubber, which for now Jamie and Inglot are scheduled to play. But the theme of the day was all about the difficulties of getting over the line, something the World No 2 has managed twice in the Grand Slams and once in the Olympics, in addition to last November's first Davis Cup win for 79 years. Fletcher hasn't been quite so lucky when it comes to an entire career of attempting to take Scotland to a major finals.

"I obviously went through it for a number of years and it's not easy but the only way to do it is to keep working hard," said the 28-year-old. "If you don't work hard, you aren't going to get there. If you don't try to improve, and if you stop believing. If you really believe in yourself then you're going to get there I think. You obviously have to have the ability to do it as well.

"Mentally it's obviously challenging - I found that hard myself," added the younger Murray sibling, who went off into the night plotting further video analysis on today's opponent Taro Daniel. The Davis Cup last year kind of came out of nowhere and crept up on us a little bit. Whereas with the slams, every year I was getting close and it felt like it was going on forever that I wasn't able to win one, and that was hard for me because people start questioning you. Every time I speak with you guys that's the same question that comes up all of the time. You can find yourself getting frustrated with that and you start doubting yourself and you start asking yourself the same questions so it's not easy. You need to be strong mentally and get the best help you can."

Whatever happens to his respective football teams this season, Fletcher and Scotland could do and worse than take that advice. "To watch Republic of Ireland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland get there when we’re not will be really difficult but let’s use that as a motivation for the World Cup campaign," the 32-year-old told STV. "I didn’t feature much in the last campaign and I’m desperate to change that. I want to qualify for a major competition; there’s still a hunger and drive inside me to do that. I’m not getting any younger so let’s make it happen sooner rather than later."