Andy Murray's cutting comments have certainly had an effect on his elder brother as Jamie Murray begins the defence of his Wimbledon mixed doubles title.

Jamie has teamed up with American Liezel Huber after his partner from 12 months ago, Jelena Jankovic, quit to focus on securing her first Grand Slam singles title.

Jamie goes into the match against Russian duo Dmitry Tursunov and Nadia Petrova having had his shaggy locks cut. The new look came after Andy branded Jamie's John McEnroe-style haircut an embarrassment.

The world No11 mocked the old look saying: "It's a big thumbs down from me. I don't think it's good. I had grown my hair about a year ago and it was probably around the same length and he was telling me 'it looks terrible, you have got to cut it'. I kept telling him that it doesn't look good."

Jankovic had jokingly claimed she would not play with Jamie again "unless he cut his hair" but he initially ignored those pleas, deciding instead to top the look off with a McEnroe-style red headband.

"I think the headband is something to do with McEnroe but I don't think that was his original plan when he started growing it," said Andy.

"But he certainly needed to put something on his head to calm it down a little bit." Although Jamie will have been disappointed by Jankovic's decision, he has found a more than adequate replacement, which is reflected in their seeding at No12 in the draw.

Huber has won two ladies doubles titles at Wimbledon, including last year, and at 31 she is a vastly experienced and respected player.

Partnered by Cara Black of Zimbabwe, Huber lost just one game in her ladies doubles firstround match as the top seeds made a near perfect start to their attempt to retain the trophy.

Murray and Huber received a bye in the first round and face a possible quarter-final against No2 seeds Daniel Nestor of Canada and Chia-Jung Chaung from Chinese Taipei.