Nadal's tribute to gallant Scot Murray

Andy Murray was hailed as a future Wimbledon champion by Rafael Nadal in spite of the gallant Australian Open defeat.

The Scot drew the admiring accolade after pushing world No 2 Nadal to the limits of his famed endurance in a thrilling fourth-round encounter.

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Murray appeared poised for victory but eventually lost 6-7, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in a pulsating match which lasted almost four hours and finished at 1.48am local time.

A relieved Nadal said: "Andy is one of the top players in the world right now. He's going to have chances to win Wimbledon, Australian and U.S.

Opens and Roland Garros, too, because he plays well on all surfaces.

"I think this will be one of the matches I will remember the most from my career. Andy’s level was unbelievable. He’s very smart on the court. He changes his game all the time. He served very well and he combined long shots with short ones

all the time. It’s very difficult to feel comfortable playing against him."

Murray, 19, came desperately close to advancing further than either Tim Henman or Greg Rusedski have managed here. His world ranking of 16 will continue to edge towards the top 10 when the new list is released next week and he believes his display against second-seed Nadal is cause

for hope, not despair.

Murray said: "I’m definitely not disappointed.

I wanted to win and played a really good match. I had chances to win. I felt the standard of tennis was excellent the whole way through and I was just a little unlucky in the fifth set.

"I enjoyed the whole atmosphere because I haven't

played in a match as big as that. The Roddick match at Wimbledon was a bit different but tonight

everyone was expecting it to be probably the best

match of the tournament so far. I think it lived up to that."

Murray's performance his debut in Rod Laver Arena, the centre court at the Melbourne Park complex, thrilled a capacity crowd.

He paid tribute to Nadal's huge reserves of energy which allowed the Spaniard to withstand a barrage of blistering hitting.

Murray added: "The guy hasn’t beaten Roger Federer six times for nothing. He’s going to be one of the best players ever. I learned tonight that I could consistently hit the ball much harder

than I thought. I missed a few shots but I was

trying to be more aggressive than normal.

"The thing I was most happy about was that it didn’t come down to a physical battle. I'm happy with the way I fought and physically my body held up. I'm glad all the work I did in the off-season has paid off but I definitely need to get stronger.

"I'm going to work as hard as I can to get to the level of fitness that Nadal has. I’m going to learn a lot from this."