Andy Murray shows some cutting edge, knifing a volley into the open court after forcing Daniel wide. 

It looks like those gremlins haven't completely left Daniel's serving arm - another double fault puts him in a big hole at 15-40. Two break points. Daniel tries to mix it up with a big kick serve, but the wily Scot is wise to it and smacks a howitzer return at his toenails. Plain sailing so far.

Image source, Getty Images

John Lloyd
Former Davis Cup finalist on BBC Two

"How does Daniel put any balls away against Murray? That last game he was much better but he has got to hope Andy loses his patience with his lay-off."

Suddenly Daniel's playing with a lot more confidence - he's winding up and putting the full power of those long levers into his shots. But Murray is solid. He hangs in the points and eventually gets his reward when Daniel puts a backhand into the tape.

Image source, Reuters

It's a nightmare out there for Daniel at the moment. Murray is just blasting him off the court - a huge forehand whizzes past his earholes and in the blink of an eye it's 40-0. Finally, after losing the first 11 points of the match, there's some respite for Daniel as Murray pulverises a forehand inches past the baseline.

Murray thinks he's got the game won when Daniel sends a forehand long - but has he? Japan challenge and it just caught the line. Daniel chases down a poor Murray drop shot and suddenly he's clawed his way back to deuce.

A rattled Murray sends an overhead into the tape, and out of nowhere, he's got a break point to fend off. Which he duly does with a big first serve. Another big serve follows, but then Murray prods an easy volley into the net. Deuce again...

John Lloyd
Former Davis Cup finalist on BBC Two

"What a terrible start. Daniel just can’t get rid of the nerves. Luckily it is a best of five set match so he has got time."

Murray makes an early impression on the Daniel serves, with some meaty groundstrokes forcing the rangy Japanese to go long. Five lost points in a row become six as the pressure induces a double fault.

You can almost see the bead of sweat inching down Daniel's brow. Another double fault and it's three break points. The Japanese coach grits his teeth on the bench. This wasn't in the script. Finally Daniel locates a second serve, but a miscued forehand gives Murray the immediate break.

A very solid start for Murray. Three big serves take him to 40-0, and when Daniel scoops low slice into the tramlines, it's a quickfire hold to love.

Image source, Getty Images

John Lloyd
Former Davis Cup finalist on BBC Two

"Sometimes I pinch myself. A lot of it is down to Andy. With someone as brilliant as he is, you have a chance to keep on winning. Why can’t we go all the way again? When he is playing this well we are a very, very, good Davis Cup team."

Image source, Getty Images

We're watching an interview with Andy Murray about his new fatherhood.

"Labour was surprising, it was tough," he tells BBC Sport's Russell Fuller.

Come on Andy, you can't say that! You didn't have to do anything in that delivery room. Just sit back and look interested while others do the hard work. The Leon Smith role.

Andrew Castle
BBC Sport tennis commentator

"He is a tall guy, raised in the Spanish system, earned his place in the top 100. He matches up horribly against Andy Murray, Andy is likely to cut him up today."

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Unless you follow the ATP Tour with the forensic commitment of a crack private investigator, you may not have heard of Taro Daniel. He's yet to make much of an impact on the biggest stage - in fact he's never even won a Grand Slam match.

So what do we know about this young fellow? Well, he's 23 years old and currently at a career-high ranking of 87. He's a man of the world too: he was born in New York to an American father and lives in Valencia, Spain.

Solid backhand. Likes hard courts. His ATP profile reveals this nugget: if he wasn’t a tennis player, he would have liked to live in the 70s and follow the musicians from that era like the rock band Led Zeppelin.

He must have been a nightmare for the school careers advisor...

Image source, Getty Images

Andy Murray, of course, is very much a known quantity. But this is a new Andy Murray - it's his first match since the birth of his daughter Sophia. That's a game-changer in anyone's book.

You might think a screaming, sleep-disrupting infant would be the last thing a professional athlete would want to introduce into the equation, but then again, fatherhood doesn't seem to have done Novak Djokovic or Roger Federer any harm. 

"It's a positive thing," Murray told the Guardian., external "Tennis not being your priority can help. The outcome of a match is not everything but I want my daughter to be proud of her dad when she grows up and sees what I did."

BBC Two

Barker. Castle. Lloyd. Lots of people in Union Jacks and kilts. 

You know you want to spend five hours watching this. 

BBC Two. Now.

As ever, we can't do this without you. We need your tweets and tweets to keep us entertained on this cold, wintry afternoon.

Can Britain defend their title? Or is this Japanese team going to throw a spanner in the works? Let us know what you think on Twitter at #bbctennis or via text to 81111.

Hello and welcome to live text, radio and TV coverage of Great Britain's first-round World Group tie against Japan at Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena.

Today it's the opening singles rubbers, pitting Andy Murray against Taro Daniel and Dan Evans against Kei Nishikori, as Great Britain begin the defence of their Davis Cup title.

I never thought I'd see the day where Britain were defending a Davis Cup title. But then again, I never thought I'd see Jermaine Jenas on Question Time. Truly, it's a crazy world we're living in.

Image source, Getty Images

It's just 97 days since Andy Murray's superb lob landed on the baseline of the FlandersExpo Arena in Ghent to clinch Great Britain's first Davis Cup in 79 years.

It was a fairytale triumph that could have come straight from a movie script. And like all the best Hollywood fairytales, this one has a lucrative, hastily-released, potentially disappointing sequel.

After years of waiting to get their hands on the ultimate prize, Britain face a battle to hang on to it. Yes, it's Davis Cup Part 2: the World Fights Back.