EASY peasy Japan-easy. Andy Murray is a man who can demolish a mountain of sushi and he used this lunchtime appetiser with Japan's Taro Daniel to demonstrate his ongoing hunger for further Davis Cup glory, all starting with a veritable Brummie banquet against Kei Nishikori on Sunday.

While there were moments during this encounter with the World No 87 which betrayed the Scot's rustiness after his month-long layoff from competitive tennis - his Australian Open final defeat to Novak Djokovic was fully 33 days ago - Daniel was in with the lions here and his ordeal was sealed by a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 scoreline in just one hour 30 minutes.

New dads tend to be tired, emotional and overwrought and the Scot admitted that even after such a comfortable win that there were times following long rallies when he was "out of breath". Nonetheless he put thoughts of what he called the "best few weeks of his life" in the company of his new daughter Sophia to the back of his mind as he returned to the groove which saw him take a perfect 11 points during Britain's glory run of 2015. Indeed, should the rest of this tie pan out as planned he could yet be headed for the daddy of all Davis Cup duels.

None of the vaunted big four of world tennis - Murray, Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal - have ever met on Davis Cup duty, but all that could come to an end in Belgrade immediately after Wimbledon. While the reigning champions began the defence of the title they won for the first time in 79 years, Serbia were battling it out in a first round tie against Kazakhstan for the right to meet them.

The atmosphere might not have equalled the decibel levels of the Emirates Arena against Australia in September nor the Flanders Expo Arena in Ghent in November but there was still a fair old din in the Barclaycard Arena when Leon Smith led his triumphant Great Britain team on court. We didn't have long to wait either for the first rendition of Loch Lomond booming out around this 9,000-capacity Midlands arena.

Daniel, a 23-year-old who was born in New York and spends much of his time practising out in Valencia, is a Led Zeppelin fan whose favourite song is Dazed and Confused. Unfortunately that was also a fair assessment of his mental state in the early stages, as he lost the first 11 points and generally got about as many returns from Murray deliveries back into play as Darren Fletcher was managing in practice here yesterday. A well-timed Daniel challenge forced Murray to win the third game twice, and even save a break point, but such moments were exceptional and it was hardly a surprise the set was done 6-1 in 28 minutes.

While Daniel, whose game style belies his Spanish influences, deserves credit for hanging in there, there were occasional misfires in Murray's game. Whilst the Scot served well all day and was returning better as the match went on, they manifested themselves as you might expect, in a lack of match sharpness and decision-making in exchanges at the net. While he was comfortably strong enough to coast through here, sharper decision making may be required against Nishikori on Sunday.

The second set was in danger of becoming a bit of a slog until Murray, after a patient yet talking to from captain Smith at the change of ends, raised his energy levels, breaking for 4-3 then sealing it with the double break with a forehand which struck the net before dropping apologetically over. The Scot, whose grandparents - little Sophia's great grandparents - had made the journey to the Midlands, was getting into his stride by the start of the third set, that two-handed backhand down the line driving his opponent to distraction. Murray turned his left ankle on one point, almost clattered into the Japanese team bench after another, and was audibly panting between points on the occasions when long baseline rallies transpired. He had to look lively to save another Daniel break-back point to hold for 4-1. But before long an ace down the middle on match point was doing the damage and Andy Murray had his first Davis Cup point as a father.

“It was good," said Murray. "It was obviously a quick start. It always helps in situations like that, when you haven’t played for a while. I maybe made a few bad decisions out there and my concentration could have been a little bit better at times, but for a first match in five weeks in that sort of atmosphere against a guy who obviously makes a lot of balls, it was okay."

Daniel, who may yet face a potentially decisive fifth rubber against Dan Evans on Sunday, will also have to play better if he is to have any chance in that match, although bizarrely the World No 87 felt he might have been more successful if the World No 2 was at the top of his game. "I thought he was a bit nervous too at the beginning," said Daniel. "But I was unable to take advantage. I sometimes wished he would play a little better because sometimes he was just kind of playing the ball back, playing the ball back. I was expecting him to hit the ball harder and that made me rush a bit more."