TENNIS: Those who know him believe Murray will come back stronger, finds Stewart Fisher

SO the dream final proved to be just that: a dream. Instead of waking up this morning and preparing to overcome the last hurdle in his epic quest to become the first British player to win the men's singles title at SW19 since Fred Perry back in 1936, Andy Murray must content himself with starting the laborious work of poring over the tapes and working out what went wrong.

A quirk in the Wimbledon seeding process this year - caused by Rafael Nadal's 11th hour withdrawal - meant that Murray was seeded third, yet ranked second behind Roger Federer. His exit at the semi-final stage saw him live up to his original pre-tournament billing yet also fall short of expectations. His own as much as anyone else's.

It was only Murray's seventh defeat of the calendar year, but it still had a sense of deja vu about it. And not just because it was the 10th time a British player had fallen at the penultimate hurdle since Bunny Austin reached the Wimbledon singles final back in 1938.

In the form of an inspired Andy Roddick, again the Scot had come up against the wrong player at the wrong time. The American No 6 seed played a superb match, bringing to mind Murray's exits to Fernando Verdasco in the Australian Open and Fernando Gonzalez in the French. Murray had merely been very good. But this kind of argument has an expiry date. Murray is third in the world on merit but is slowly learning about some of the things that come with such lofty terrain. Not least the fact that other players in the draw sense you are there to be shot down and raise their game accordingly.

"Regardless of what sport you are in the guys that aren't ranked as high will come for you whether that's in football or whatever," Murray said. "It's very difficult what Rafa and Roger have been able to do to stay at the top for so long and perform so well in the grand slams. That's very special because guys do come out to try to play great and there is less pressure on them to play well and the consistency they have shown has been incredible."

Until he can achieve that, Murray will remain one level behind the top two. Outright victory at SW19 this week would have sent Murray to No 2 in the world and only five points off Nadal at the top of the rankings. Now, in all likelihood, Federer will return to the top spot as early as tomorrow and Nadal will be back in time for the US Open. Murray will travel to the US in positive mood but in terms of the very summit of world tennis, he is still on the outside looking in.

"I think that Andy's form over the last 12 months has been fantastic but you need to give respect to Nadal having won six slams and Federer 14," said Tim Henman, a Wimbledon semi-final loser on no fewer than four occasions. "Andy is closing the gap but they are at different stages of their careers."

THE momentum that had been gathering behind a Federer-Murray final was so irresistible that even the Swiss was slightly put out that the whole media circus didn't come to pass. The World No 2, who has a 2-6 losing record against the Scot, has a tendency to damn the 22-year-old from Dunblane with faint praise, but yesterday he went further than that. In saying Murray would have many "young and hungry" players to come up against in the next few years, he fired a warning shot across the Scot's bows.

"He's put himself in a good position with all his wins in the Masters events, being consistent and having a good record against top players," Federer said. "So things look good for him. But a grand slam is not something that comes very easily. It takes a lot of hard work. There are many young and hungry players out there. Rafa is going to come back for the US Open and so forth. So it is not an easy thing to do.

"It was good to see that Roddick could really push Murray on the back foot time and time again," Federer added. "That is what I said: the better man would come to the finals and challenge me. I'm maybe a little bit disappointed it wasn't a Murray-Federer final, you know. But then again whoever won the semi-finals deserved it more.

"I think the story definitely was Murray in this tournament, because of where he comes from, because of how good his game has got and that he had a real chance of winning here."

JAMIE MURRAY also had a few home truths for his little brother. The riff returned to the old passive/ aggressive equation. On Friday night - with perspiration still glistening on his forehead after three hours and seven minutes on court - Andy had refuted the claim that he had, essentially, been waiting for Roddick to make mistakes. Only for him not to make any.

Jamie felt there was a fair bit of truth in that. "I am sure he will be pretty disappointed," Jamie said. "I think Roddick played a very good match and probably a bit better than some people were expecting him to do. Roddick served great but Andy was maybe a bit too passive with some of his play. In that situation the guy who is going to come out on top more often than not is the guy who was being more aggressive and going for his shots and it was certainly Roddick who was doing that."

Still, after a couple of days without picking up a racquet, then a couple of weeks out at his house in Miami tuning up for the US season, the next tournament will come along.

"That is tennis, there is always another tournament, so it is not like he is going to be in the doldrums forever," Jamie said. "He is still third in the world, he improved on his performance last year and the first time you make semi-finals at Wimbledon I'm sure is a great thing. But I am sure he'll be thinking he had a great chance to get to the final."

THE theme was returned to by at least one former Wimbledon champion. Richard Krajicek, surprise winner here in 1996 and now tournament director of the ABN AMRO event in Rotterdam which Murray won earlier in the year, feels Murray almost seems to enjoy tennis too much to finish some points off early.

"I have seen his game a lot, especially in the week he won our tournament and I think he is a fantastic player," Krajicek told the Sunday Herald, "although sometimes I think he doesn't realise how big his game is. It is almost like sometimes he has got the other guy on the ropes but he lets him back in the rally. Maybe he is just enjoying it too much, making the guy run all over the court."

Murray comes from a different generation to Krajicek, but asked for which player from his era the Scot most closely resembles, the search alighted on an unusual name. Miroslav Mecir, the Slovakian singles gold medallist in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, had the same two-handed backhand, the same knowledge of the geometry of a tennis court to conjure extraordinary angles from the tramlines but it was an unfortunate co-incidence that Krajicek should select a man who never won a grand slam.

"Sometimes he reminds me of Miroslav Mecir with how he can accelerate into his backhand, but he has got a better forehand and much better power," Krajicek said. "It is like nothing is happening with him and then bang, the ball is past you. He is like a silent assassin.

But regardless of what has happened to him this week, I think British tennis should be very happy and proud and they are going to have a lot of fun from him. He is going to do a lot of good things for British tennis over the years."

THE good news for the Scot's supporters and bad news for the rest of the ATP tour is that Murray in defeat tends to be every bit as dangerous as Murray in victory. Every setback the 22-year-old from Dunblane has faced in his career has been followed by an intense period of navel gazing and the right steps eventually being taken to rectify the problem.

He was only 14 when he learned that Rafa Nadal had been practising with former top 10 player Carlos Moya. His answer was to enrol at the Sanchez-Casal academy in Spain. The lesson of last year's brutal defeat by Nadal was the punishing fitness work which laid the groundwork for a year of success, not least his splendid semi-final victory over the Spaniard in the US Open. Next may be taking a page out of Roddick's book and working on getting himself to the net more often. Murray is a personable young man but, in dispensing with four coaches before the age of 22 he shows the ruthlessness of an inveterate football club chairman.

"From a young age he has made some good decisions," recalled the Scot's first coach, Leon Smith. "It started with going to Spain when he knew the weather wasn't going to be good enough in Scotland or there wasn't going to be enough variety.

"He did the same with myself, realising that the right thing was to move on and get some more experience, did it with another coach called Pato Alvarez, then he did it with Petch Mark Petchey, then Brad Gilbert had to move on, so I think he has got it in there. He knows how to make his own decisions. His decision-making and problem-solving is excellent."

Working with Team Murray has had a positive effect on the Scot in the last 12 months, but it was in the tactical battle that he lost out to Roddick on Friday night.

Emilio Sanchez, the five-times grand slam doubles winner and one of the co-founders of Murray's alma mater, agrees the Scot will find a way to go forward. The brother of Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario still rates him as the best player ever to have come from his tennis school.

"I think that the really good players always find a way," Sanchez said. "I am always proud that he has achieved great things because Andy is a good kid and in the time he had here he always took great care of the other kids, the ones who maybe weren't as successful on the tennis side. But if he is to be the No 2 in the world and one day challenge for the top position he needs to start making these matches. He needs to start making those finals and winning them."

ON that score, the final word goes to one of the greats of the modern game. Ilie Nastase is in no doubt that Murray will be a Wimbledon champion in years to come. And he should know. "He is only 22 so it doesn't matter that he hasn't won this year," Nastase said. "He might not have won it this year but he will definitely win it one time. Maybe even many grand slams. But let's start with one."