Birthday boy Andy coming of age on clay.
Andy Murray insisted he could see improvement in his clay-court game despite being predictably outclassed by eventual winner Rafael Nadal in the third round of the Hamburg Masters.
Andy Murray insisted he could see improvement in his clay-court game despite being predictably outclassed by eventual winner Rafael Nadal in the third round of the Hamburg Masters.
The RBS-sponsored ace marked his 21st birthday by going down 6-3, 6-2 to the Spaniard – despite showing glimpses of the form that saw him dispatch Dmitry Tursunov and Gilles Simon earlier in the week.
"I just want to concentrate right now on getting closer to the guys at the top,' said Andy. "Whether or not I'll play as well on clay as on other surfaces, I don't really know.
"But my game is definitely getting better and that is one positive thing I can leave with."
The run to the last 16 in Hamburg means Andy will go into the French Open ranked 11th in the world.
He got off to the perfect start in holding to love in the opening game and looked capable of troubling the Spaniard on his serve early in the match.
However, a poor overhead saw him broken in the third game, and a second break handed Nadal the set.
Andy broke his opponent in the first game of the second set but the left-hander bludgeoned his way back level in the next. An growing number unforced errors – against Nadal's relentless baseline game – ended the Scot's challenge.
He told BBC Sport afterwards: "Nadal's forehand is the best shot in tennis. When you go behind against him on clay it's very hard to get back."
Nadal went on to win his first Hamburg Masters title with an epic 7-5, 6-7, 6-3 win over world number one Roger Federer.
Meanwhile, RBS-sponsored Jamie Murray and his Belarussian playing partner, Max Mirnyi, wasted a strong start to crash out of the Hamburg doubles in the first round.
They won the first set 7-5 against French duo Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau. However, they were broken three times in a 3-6 second set reverse. The French duo also took control in the decisive tie-break, winning it 10-7.
