Murray’s participation in the season ending competition, for the top eight men’s players, had been in doubt with the Scot scheduled to play for Britain against Belgium in their first Davis Cup Final since 1978 from November 27 to 29.

The two-time Grand Slam winner, however, dispelled any doubts about his commitment to the event by pressuring Ferrer’s serve in the opening games of the match, but in typically dogged fashion the Spaniard thwarted Murray’s early efforts.

With Ferrer serving to stay in the first set a well-positioned volley from Murray saw him earn two break points and his aggressive play finally paid dividends as the world number eight proved unable to respond.

A disastrous start to the second set by Murray saw Ferrer break him to love but the 33-year-old was unable to make the most of his advantage.

Murray quickly drew level once more and with the momentum on his side the Scot broke once more to secure a straight sets 6-4, 6-4 victory.

"It was a tough match with a lot of long rallies," Murray said.

"He fought hard right to the end and made it extremely difficult.

"He didn't serve as well as he can and I played a bit better at the end of both sets, and that got me the win."

Murray is due to face Rafael Nadal in his second round robin match on Wednesday (November 18) with both players on the verge of claiming a semi-final berth after winning their first tie, as the Spanish star made light work of Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka.

The 14-time Grand Slam champion has endured a difficult 2015 due to injuries but displayed signs of his old form to break serve late in the first set after a lengthy game, before consolidating the advantage to move a set away from victory.

Reigning Australian Open champion Wawrinka, frustrated by several unforced errors, allowed Nadal to take full control in the second set with Spaniard breaking on two further occasions en route to a 6-3, 6-2 triumph.

In the men’s doubles competition, third seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Brazil’s Marcelo Melo came from behind to beat the French duo Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 7-6, 10-7.

The Netherlands’ Jean-Julien Rojer and Romania’s Horia Tecău earned an impressive straight sets 6-2, 6-4 win over Poland’s Marcin Matkowski and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia.

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