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Murray must not let himself linger on latest defeat

The worst thing Andy Murray can do is let defeat to Rafael Nadal grind him down mentally © Getty Images

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Wimbledon Day 11 Gallery
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What They Said

Another year, another semi-final exit for a Brit at Wimbledon.

The locals have seen it all before, of course, but it is nevertheless a crushing disappointment every time it comes.

It's probably of no comfort to anyone that the disappointment is magnified for the man himself, Andy Murray. For the third year in a row he has fallen at the penultimate hurdle, and for the second successive year the man who has blocked his path is also the best player in the world - Rafael Nadal.

This time it took four sets; Murray snatching the first after an evenly-matched start to the contest, before the Spaniard romped away with things to eventually seal a relatively convincing 5-7 6-2 6-2 6-4 success.

Murray will doubtless now be subject to some criticism - with the agonisingly unoriginal quips about him going 'back to being Scottish' once again likely to be unavoidable. While he may have appeared to get demoralised too easily once the tide turned against him, at some point it becomes difficult to be too critical of a 24-year-old who simply had the misfortune to come up against one of the greatest players the game has ever seen.

"To win against Andy, I needed to play my best tennis today ... and I played my best tennis," Nadal said, after making his fourth final in his last four appearances at the All England Club (after missing the 2009 event through injury). "For me is a dream to be back in final another time.

"I feel sad for Andy. He deserved to be in this final."

That last part, rather self-evidently, isn't entirely true - he was well beaten by Nadal and might well have been usurped by the other finalist, Novak Djokovic - the new world No. 1, no less - had he had to face him instead.

But he was close. The question now is really, can he get any closer?

Even in defeat, the answer suggests he can. Almost from the first set the man from Dunblane appeared to be suffering slightly with a hip injury, one that continued to resurface on occasions throughout the rest of the match.

If we accept he wasn't playing up the extent of the problem, then that automatically suggests there is room for improvement to be made. Fitness is a key part of any professional sport, although of course Nadal has suffered with his own issues in the past week.

Then there is the fact Murray managed to get himself in front - and could have been further had he made more of a half-chance early in the second set. With the score 2-1 and Nadal serving to restore parity, Murray missed an open forehand to miss the chance to grab two break points.

With that, the tide turned.

"It was a big point," Murray acknowledged. "I was playing high-risk tennis most of the match. I went for it today and started to make a few mistakes. You can't talk about a match that goes three hours being decided by one point.

"Against Rafa you have to go for big shots. I slightly over-hit that one."

Nevertheless, it was a significant moment in the tale of the contest. Up to that point Murray had not given his opponent so much as a sniff at a break point, yet after it Nadal went on to avoid making a single unforced error in the entire set as he finally got on the path to victory.

Murray played the tennis he needed to for one set (and was also remarkably dogged after going behind early in the fourth, even if he couldn't salvage anything by that point) - the challenge for him now is to go away and work out how to up that standard to the three grand slam victories demand.

Part of that equation is mental. While Nadal was eliminating any errors from his game, Murray suddenly saw them increase. Then his head dropped. The pressure of trying to win a major event seems to get to him - just as it did at the Australian Open, where a straight sets defeat in the final to Djokovic saw his game spiral out of control for a number of months.

"It's tough," Murray said, "but I'm giving it my best shot, trying my hardest, and that's all I can do. I'm disappointed but normally after four or five days, barring Australia, I recover quite quickly from losing."

That's perhaps the area Murray needs to address now - especially if his coaching work with the likes of Darren Cahill is paying off as is often reported. His concentration and mental fortitude must be built up to match his increasingly formidable serve and natural returner's touch.

In an era with two, potentially three all-time greats of the game playing near the peak of his powers, he can't afford to be too downhearted by the disappointments that are bound to come his way if he is to exploit the openings that will doubtless appear from time to time.

Murray won't win Wimbledon this year, that much we now know. But today's defeat ultimately should have no bearing on his future chances of winning at the All England Club - unless he lets it.

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