Murray vows to learn from thriller

Andy Murray intends to use his defeat to Rafael Nadal in the third round of the Madrid Masters last night as a valuable lesson.

Murray pushed the world number two and local hero all the way in a thrilling encounter that ultimately saw Nadal emerge victorious 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 in two hours and 16 minutes.

That may have spelled the end of Murray’s tournament, but the British number one is keen to learn from the experience.

“I thought I played pretty well – it was a really long match, with a lot of tough points. It could have gone either way. Both of us had our chances and he took his,” Murray said.

“I was obviously disappointed to lose but I thought it was a very good match and I think I will learn a lot from it.”

Murray, who had been unstoppable in his opening two matches against Radek Stepanek and Juan Ignacio Chela, when the Scot admitted he had played some of the best tennis of his career, might easily have been celebrating a famous victory over Nadal had a couple of points gone his way at key times.

He dominated most of the first set before losing on a tie-break, before spurning two break points in the second set which would have seen him take a 5-2 lead.

“I think it was an unbelievably close match, I think we probably won about the same amount of points. Each game was really close, I had a lot of chances, he didn’t have as many chances as me in the first set but he played a good tie-break,” Murray said.

“I probably should have won the second set, I was 4-2 and 15-40 up. I had a lot of chances and I didn’t take them. He’s a little bit more experienced than me and played the big points better.”

Murray believes he got his tactics pretty much spot-on against Nadal, and felt that being any more aggressive against the Spaniard would have played into his hands.

“Until you actually get on the court against him you don’t understand how difficult it is to approach on balls that are up around your neck and have a lot of top-spin,” he explained.

“At 4-4 and break-point for me I played really aggressively, and he comes up with an unbelievable running forehand down the line. He hit some great backhand passes on big points.

“It’s easy to say play aggressive against him but I would also say he plays his best tennis when he is running, he is a great shot-maker so you’ve just got to get a balance.

“I think I was close to getting that right tonight and maybe next time I’ll be even closer.”

Despite the loss, Murray was pleased with his performance, especially considering he missed almost three months of action earlier this year because of a wrist injury.

“To play the guy so close after the injury I had this year is great. Obviously I wasn’t playing at the level for the first month and a half when I came back,” he said.

“I’m happy that I’m back playing at this level and giving the number two in the world a good match.”

Nadal, the 2005 champion here, was full of praise for Murray and was not surprised to be given such a testing match by the 20-year-old Scot.

“He is a very good player, he’s one of the best players in the world, so for that reason every match is very tough against him,” Nadal said.

“He has unbelievable talent, he changed the tempo, playing one ball slow and the next ball he plays it very fast, so that is difficult for the other player.

“He served well, he has a very good serve.”

Nadal has now beaten Murray in both of their meetings, having also triumphed over the Scot at the Australian Open earlier this year.

That match was a similarly exciting affair, which Nadal won 6-7 (7/3) 6-4 4-6 6-3 6-1, but the Spanish ace believes the pair of them played much better tennis last night.

“I can’t compare this match with the match in Australia because in my opinion I did not play a good match in Australia,” said Nadal, who will now face David Nalbandian in the quarter-finals.

“I played a so-so match, I fought a lot and finally I won the match, but the tennis wasn’t very good.

“Here it was different. In my opinion Andy and me played better here than in Australia and today I played a complete match.”