Great British hope knocked out of third round

Heroic Andy Murray slipped to an agonising final set defeat against 18th seed David Nalbandian in a true Centre Court epic today.

The 18-year-old Scot finished the three hour, 13-minute match stricken by exhaustion and injury as the Argentinian triumphed 6-7 1-6 6-0 6-4 6-1.

Nalbandian’s sheer consistency sent him into the fourth round, but the abiding memory will be of how Murray came so close to fashioning one of the greatest victories in British tennis history.

Novice Murray had received a rapturous welcome when he walked onto court at 4.19 under leaden skies, and he immediately seemed at home on the Centre Court that he had longed to play on.

The audacious 18-year-old nervelessly served out his first service game to the cheers of the home crowd before breaking the Argentinian’s serve to take a 2-1 lead.

But the nerves associated with holding such an improbable advantage soon surfaced, with the young Scot double-faulting for a break straight back, and double-faulting again at the start of his next service game to fall 4-2 behind.

However, an extraordinary set continued to twist and turn, with Murray clawing back level and the pair exchanging breaks again from the baseline, Murray’s inability to serve out for the set at 6-5 leaving the precocious youngster completely undaunted.

Murray was now matching the consistency and ferocity of his opponent and incredibly, given his sudden rise from the remote junior ranks, looking every bit the Centre Court veteran.

Having got to grips with Nalbandian’s relentless assaults, Murray was visibly gaining in confidence and he roared emphatically through the resulting tie-break, a big unreturnable serve proving enough to give him the breaker 7-4 and a sensational one-set lead.

It was about to get much, much better for Murray, who added more steel to his own serves early in the second set while pounding back the returns on Nalbandian’s much weaker offerings.

Incredibly, the young Scot was outclassing an opponent considered by some top judges to be one of the best players in the game yet to claim a Grand Slam singles title.

He proceeded to break twice in succession before serving out with the confidence of someone far more experienced to move within one set of an extraordinary victory.

But in adversity Nalbandian came out firing and steered a discernible turn in momentum when he broke Murray in the second game of the third set to go 2-0 up.

The Argentinian was re-injecting venom into his groundstrokes and suddenly the Scot looked tired, going on to virtually gift his opponent a 6-0 set courtesy of a double-fault and a half-hearted, netted backhand.

A series of rigorous stretching routines between sets did little to restore the confidence of an increasingly desperate Centre Court crowd, neither did a thoroughly convincing Nalbandian service game to love which opened the fourth set.

Yet drawing deep on his very last reserves of energy, Murray held his nerve through sapping rallies and forced the errors which gave him the first break in the fourth for 2-1.

And after escaping two immediate break-back points, the first with a clubbing forehand pass, the momentum seemingly shifted back in the underdog’s favour.

Painful memories of cramping at the point of victory at Queen’s Club two weeks ago kept the exhausted Murray and his supporters on tenterhooks.

And with one minute short of two and a half hours showing on the Centre Court clock, Murray netted a weak forehand and was broken back for 4-4.

There were more twists to come in a remarkable match. Murray missed three break point chances in the following game, including one in which a Nalbandian forehand was called long only to be immediately corrected by the line judge.

But the Argentinian survived, and proceeded to break Murray’s serve to claim the set and take the tie into a decider.

Murray received treatment for cramp between sets then lost his first service game, lending a grim inevitability to the outcome as a truly epic Centre Court clash slowly slipped from his grasp.