- French Open
Murray: I need to move on quickly
Andy Murray admits he needs to move on quickly from his French Open semi-final demolition at the hands of Rafael Nadal and turn his attention to defending his Wimbledon crown.
Nadal crushed Murray 6-3 6-2 6-1 in just 100 minutes of a one-sided match on Court Philippe Chatrier to book his ninth final at Roland Garros, where he will play Novak Djokovic.
"It was a bad, bad day for me," Murray told his press conference afterwards. "I never want to forget about matches but I need to switch my mind to grass.
"This is the most time I've spent on court in a two-week span since I came back [from his back operation]. I think it is going to help me on the grass.
"It was the toughest match I played against him."
Murray appeared to finally run out of steam after a testing seven days that saw him play two five-set matches at Roland Garros.
His third-round epic with Philipp Kohlschreiber extended into a second day after play was suspended at 7-7 in the fifth set for bad light on Saturday, while Murray was also taken the distance by home favourite Gael Monfils having blown a two-set lead.
And Murray admitted he paid the price for not wrapping up both matches earlier.
"I've only got myself to blame, because I was in control of a lot of matches that went longer than maybe they should have been," Murray added.
"So if that did have anything to do with it, it is completely my fault. The way he was hitting the ball today, you have to do a lot of running and chasing a lot of balls down. I couldn't get enough back. He served well and I didn't return well. Simple."
Nadal said he felt Murray had been below his best on Friday, though insisted he has done extremely well since his comeback from injury.
"I played very well with my forehand," said Nadal. "It was important to serve the way that I served today.
"It's true that for a player like Andy - he's a big returner - that he made more mistakes than usual on the return."
Nadal added: "He's a player I do admire quite a lot. He is a player who is just recovering from an injury and he's had very good results.
"He's somebody I know very well on a personal level. He's a beautiful person."