Andy Murray remaining upbeat despite Surbiton Trophy semi-final defeat

Andy Murray's hopes of winning a first tournament on British soil since 2016 ended in defeat in the Surbiton Trophy semi-final.

Andy Murray plays a backhand during his defeat to Denis Kudla in the semi-finals of the Surbiton Trophy. (Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images)

Murray had not won at home since triumphing at the ATP Finals six years ago and the wait will go on after losing 5-7 7-6 (5) 6-3 to American Denis Kudla.

Still, it was a good week of practice on the grass for Murray, who will now head to Germany to play in the Stuttgart Open next week before returning to London to play at Queen's ahead of another SW19 campaign.

The Scot, who skipped the French Open in order to get in shape for the short grass season, made a good start against the big-serving American and took the first set.

He had led 4-1 but was pegged back only to break at the crucial moment to take it 7-5.

The second set remained on serve and Murray was just two points away from sealing victory at 6-5 up. However, Kudla fought back and forced the tie-break which he won to keep the match alive.

The warning signs were there for Murray when he had to save five break points in the second game of the deciding set, but he could not hold off Kudla for long and the American broke at 3-2 and went on to see the match out without any sign of a Murray response.

Despite his defeat, Murray was not too concerned about how he played against the world number 83 in challenging conditions and was overall satisfied in his first appearance at the tournament in 18 years.

“It’s tough to read too much into how I played. I competed pretty well for the first couple of sets, third set not as well as I would have liked,” he said.

“It was brutal conditions for both of us today, there was not loads of amazing tennis. We were using different skills out there and trying to find ways to put the ball in difficult positions for the opponent. Denis did a better job of that today.

“I played some good matches this week. Today I’m not concerned about how I played. You can’t expect to play your best tennis when it’s like that.

“Overall it was good for me to get four matches, I would’ve liked to have won the tournament, but that wasn’t to be.”

With some of the world’s best set to be competing in both Stuttgart and Queens as the grass court season gets underway, Murray insists he is not setting lofty targets in the next couple of weeks.

He added: “I just want to keep improving week on week and match on match. That’s all you can do really.

“You can’t control the results, you can’t predict how the results are going to go but hopefully I can make improvements each round."

In the women's draw, Britain's Jodie Burrage fell to a 6-3 6-4 semi-final defeat by Belgian second seed Alison van Uytvanck.

For the latest action on the British summer grass court season, check out the LTA Website