Wimbledon 2011: Team Murray face up to shattered dream

Published on Friday 1 July 2011 19:04

A NATION heaved a sigh of disappointment last night as Andy Murray failed to reach the Wimbledon final and break Britain's long tennis drought.

Murray went down to the world number one, Rafael Nadal, in four sets, despite a very strong first set as the Scot played some of his best tennis.

But Nadal, who now has 20 unbeaten Wimbledon matches under his belt, outclassed Murray and is now preparing for his 13th Grand Slam final tomorrow.

Britain's hopes now lie with Liam Broady who reached the boys' final yesterday afternoon.

Speaking after the win, Nadal said: "For me, it's a dream to be back in the final. I'm very happy. I feel sad for Murray. I think he deserves to be in this final too. I wish him all the best for the rest of the year.

"He's a great champion and the only way to beat him is to be really aggressive and play some fantastic shots.

"He was playing fantastic at the beginning, but he made a mistake at the beginning of the second set and that was one of the turning points of the match."

Tennis great Boris Becker, said of Murray's game, said: "Well, that's one more set than last year. Nadal has too much power, too much of everything."

Last night Murray's grandmother, Ellen, 77, insisted he remained a hero. She said: "We all love you just the same. I know your time will come."

"I'm not worried about how he'll get over this disappointment. He may have struggled a little in the past but he's a lot better now, in his mind. He'll be down just now but he'll get back up and come back stronger.

"The support he's had at Wimbledon has been wonderful. It's been nice to see that."

As punters spilled out of pubs in Dunblane, David Symon, 24, an old schoolmate of Murray's and now barman at the town's Village Inn, said: "Everyone was glued to the TV in here, willing Andy to win, but it was frustrating. Good luck to Rafael in the final."

Locals said they remain hopeful. Dunblane hotel landlord Tom McLean, 63 said: "I won't be serving strawberries and cream on Sunday - it'll just be another Sunday. But Andy will win a slam one day, and when he does we'll all be here to watch it."

In London, an enthusiastic Murray fanbase was out in force in hopes of a British win. Saltires waved as Murray called for a trainer just a few minutes into the game, adding to the nervous energy of centre court, but later waved him off.

Back and forth the first set went - for every game Murray took, Nadal caught up.It was a nervous crowd at the All England Club and the millions glued to TV sets around the nation, occasionally daring to believe and bursting out in wild and familiar cheers of "Come on Andy".

"Murray looks like an all-out attacking force," said the commentators as Murray took the first set 7-5 after a hard-fought 54 minutes.

But as the shadows began to creep across centre court into the second set, Nadal again demonstrated why he is the world's number one tennis player.

He demolished Murray in just 36 minutes to take the second set, 6-2. Fans and commentators watched as the Scot's shoulders started to droop.

Murray tried to dig deep in the third set, even taking out a new racket, but he could not stop the onslaught, again losing in 36 minutes.

Nearing the end of the fourth set, Murray's girlfriend, Kim Sears, slumped forward, her hands covering much of her face as she watched nervously.

Murray came close to saving himself in the fourth set, but eventually went down in 53 minutes, sending Nadal leaping into the air.

After the match, Murray's former coach Miles Maclagan said: "Nadal is an amazing individual. He faced some adversity and he faced a guy playing excellent tennis but his concentration and belief never wavered.

"But Andy can take so many positives from this. He has played this match in the right manner and the lesson he can take is that in Nadal here we have a man who can play at that high intensity for five sets if necessary."

Earlier yesterday, Belgrade-born Djokovic won a hard-fought four-set victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Djokovic, no matter what happens tomorrow , will ascend to number one in the world ATP rankings thanks to points come Monday morning, making this year's Wimbledon final a potentially epic contest between essentially two number ones.

The Serbian has lost just one of 47 matches this year, but still trails behind Nadal and Roger Federer, who have 26 Grand Slams between them. Djokovic has so far won two Australian Open titles, but has failed to win any other major tournaments.