Tennis:Andy Murray was left to reflect on another Wimbledon where his best was not good enough.
The Scot went out in the semi-finals for the third year in a row and, like 12 months ago, it was formidable Spaniard Rafael Nadal who crushed his dreams of becoming the first British man since Bunny Austin in 1938 to reach the final.
Murray won the first set this time to raise expectations even higher but 39 unforced errors proved his undoing as Nadal ran out a 5-7 6-2 6-2 6-4 winner.
The defeat was Murray's fifth in either the semi-finals or final of a grand slam in the last two years but he tried to take away the positives.
He said: "It's tough. But I'm giving it my best shot each time. I'm trying my hardest. That's all you can do. I'm disappointed.
"But normally, after four or five days, bar Australia the last couple of years, I've recovered relatively quickly from losing because I'm just trying to get better.
"I feel like I'm playing better tennis than I was last year at this point."
Murray played a sublime first set, bossing rallies from the back of the court and keeping Nadal pinned on his backhand.
But he could not keep it up and he admitted afterwards that, having been criticised in the past for being too passive, he had gone too far in the other direction.
The 24-year-old said: "You can beat him by playing patient. When I've beaten him in the past, at the US Open and the Australian Open, I played a little bit more patient. I maybe got the balance a little bit wrong.
"But you need to try and find a way. Each time you play against one of the best players you need to play slightly differently because they're going to change their game against you. You have to make adjustments."
Nadal will face first-time finalist Novak Djokovic tomorrow, a day before the Serb officially takes over from his rival as world number one.
The top seed had nothing but praise for Murray, a player with whom he shares a huge amount of mutual respect, and he restated his view that the Scot will win a grand slam title.
Nadal told Murray at the net that he was sorry for inflicting another painful loss, and he added: "I felt that on the court, too. I'm not a robot when I'm playing.
"He's the best player without a grand slam title that I've ever seen. So he deserves to be a champion. It's not easy for him to be there all the time and finally he lost another time.
"But he's doing well. He's playing in the right way to win a grand slam. He needs a little bit more luck and he will win. I still don't have any doubts on that."