Murray has been enjoying some well-earned time off since representing Great Britain in their Davis Cup clash against Austria three weeks ago, and his appearance in the Spanish capital this week will be his first tour event since reaching the US Open final.

But the 21-year-old Scot is well aware he needs to be firing on all cylinders almost straight away in Madrid, with 37 of the world's top 38 players taking part – the only exception being the injured Mario Ancic.

"I'm feeling good, I had a few weeks off after the Davis Cup so I feel pretty fresh," said Murray. "It's been good to have a bit of time off; it's been a long year with the Olympics being in between Wimbledon and the US Open.

"It was nice; I played some Davis Cup, got some time off and I'm looking forward to playing again.

"I've not played for a while so I'm just trying to take each match at a time. In these sorts of tournaments you could play a guy in the top 20 in your first match, you've got to be ready from the start."

Murray suffered a first-round defeat in the doubles yesterday when he and brother Jamie lost 6-4, 6-3 to French duo Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra – the same pairing they were defeated by in their last doubles outing together at the Beijing Olympics.

Murray junior will now fix his focus on the singles, which will see him meet Italian lucky loser Simone Bolelli – a player he has never faced before – in the second round today, having received a first-round bye.

Bolelli, the world No43, created an upset yesterday when he defeated Nicolas Almagro, a player 26 places above him in the rankings, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 in the first round.

Murray had lost his only previous meeting against Spaniard Almagro at the French Open earlier this year. That four-set defeat was a minor blip in what has largely been a fantastic season for Murray – winning singles titles in Doha, Marseille and Cincinnati, reaching the US Open final and the quarter- finals at Wimbledon and rising into the top four in the rankings.

"The whole summer was good for me, barring the Olympics, where I didn't play particularly well," Murray added. "I won my first Masters series, Wimbledon was obviously not a bad couple of weeks for me. I feel confident, I'm at my highest world ranking at the moment, and I'm looking forward to the start of the tournament."

Should Murray progress past Bolelli, then the rest of the draw could see him facing Fernando Gonzalez, Andy Roddick and Roger Federer in subsequent rounds, barring any upsets.

Murray could only face world No1 and home favourite Rafael Nadal if he reaches the final, and the Scot insists he is not thinking about gaining revenge for his defeat against the Spaniard in the third round of last year's Madrid Masters.

"We are in opposite sides of the draw so there is a lot of tennis to be played before we could face each other," he said. "I'm not sure I'm going to get there so we'll have to wait and see but there was a great atmosphere when I played him last year."

Yesterday's doubles match with Jamie lasted less than an hour as Clement and Llodra eased to a straight-sets victory, winning 6-4, 6-3.

The Murrays had already saved one break point but their opponents made the most of their second in the tenth game – on the Andy Murray serve – to take the opening set.

Clement and Llodra then took charge of the second set early on when they broke Andy again in the fourth game, but the Murrays spurned a decent chance to hit back in the seventh game. They opened up a 0-30 lead on Clement's serve but they were unable to hammer home their advantage as the French pairing rattled off four successive points to go on and secure the match.