It was the same old story but once again we had all wanted to believe otherwise. For the third time in succession, Andy Murray reached the semi-final of Wimbledon and went home a loser.
For 56 minutes yesterday there was a genuine belief that the Scot might just make it after he took the first set 7-5. As he arrived on court to a rapturous applause, the sun came out on a humid afternoon. Just under three hours later, about 40,000 people trooped home under a dark grey sky.
Fans had been queueing since at 8am on Thursday to get a plum spot on Murray Mount but their dedication was not rewarded. One couple from Milton Keynes had left home at 4am three days ago to pitch their tent at car park No 10. It was only when they arrived that they were told there were no tickets left.
Instead they joined about 6,000 people on the hill, which reached capacity. Another 4,500 filled No 2 Court. Murray had wiped away tears last year when he left the post-match press conference, and is likely to have shed a few more again last night. He is in danger of breaking Tim Henman’s four semi-final appearances at Wimbledon, and is among four Britons who have appeared in ten semi-finals without progressing to the final since Henry “Bunny” Austin before the Second World War.
Austin was the last Briton to reach the men’s final, in 1938. Yesterday his son John Austin, 65, said his father would have admired Murray, but added that Murray’s mental side was “a little suspect”.
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The celebrities had turned out again for Murray. But perhaps they are bad omens. Katherine Jenkins, the singer, witnessed Murray’s exit last year and saw a repeat from the Royal Box yesterday. Not even Pippa Middleton, who had watched Murray dispatch Feliciano Lopez in the quarters, could inspire him.
Instead consolation will be found in the emergence of another young British talent. Liam Broady, 17, raised the prospect of being the first junior to win Wimbledon since 1962.
But then again, perhaps we should know better.