Tennis/Australian Open Championships:In terms of his limited grand slam career, amounting to nine, Andy Murray's 7-5, 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 Australian Open first-round defeat by France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was by some way the most disappointing.
Here under the Victoria sun there were high hopes, both within his camp and without, of a breakthrough and a possible quarter-final or better.
The 20-year-old Scot put this setback down to simple inexperience. "It showed. The more slams I play, the more big matches, I will learn from them and not make the same mistakes."
Murray is a thinker. He has watched big matches on television since he was a kid and has usually been able to tell his mother, Judy, how he would have won. He clearly felt he ought to have beaten Tsonga, although this was a contest where he simply made too many wrong decisions. His fans have become used to grinding their teeth when he overdoes the drop shot, but on this occasion he allowed Tsonga, a wonderfully athletic player with a pulverising serve and ripping forehand, to dictate his terms for too long.
Murray has gifts in abundance, almost too many it could be argued, and experience will surely help him sort out the wheat from the chaff in his game.
The fact he is already in the top 10, even though yesterday's defeat will probably see him slide out, is testimony to his startling progress.
"I want to stay in the top 10 and be among the best players in the world. And I want to make sure that I am physically fitter and that my game is better. I think I have shown by winning four tournaments that I have the potential to challenge for the grand slams in the future. I'll learn from this defeat."
Murray loves to win rallies by keeping the ball in play and outmanoeuvring his opponents by playing soft or heavy ball. This can be pure joy to watch, but he remains vulnerable to the big hitters, as Tsonga proved. He squeezed Murray's time and used the net to much better effect.
There were no real shocks on the opening day. Rafael Nadal muscled his way into the second round with a gritty, straight-sets win. The number two seed downed qualifier Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7/3), 7-5, 6-1 in just over two and a half hours.
The star Spaniard was joined in the second round by American ace Andy Roddick, Richard Gasquet of France and Nikolay Davydenko.
However, 1997 Australian Open finalist Carlos Moya, the 16th seed, was a casualty. He went down in four sets to Stefan Koubek of Austria.
For brief moments it seemed Nadal may join Murray and Moya as Troicki went for, and made, a host of daring groundstrokes in the opening two sets.
The 126th-ranked Troicki showed no sign of nerves in his maiden grand slam as he mixed it with the powerful Spaniard in the early exchanges of their battle on Rod Laver Arena.
However, Nadal used his strength, skill and experience on the big stage to overcome the Serbian in a match in which he continually improved.
After taking the opening set tie-break 7-3, Nadal was under pressure in the second set as the underdog snatched a 3-1 lead with an early break.
Nadal, sporting his trademark singlet, managed to break back in the eighth game and did the same four games later to set up his two-set buffer. The 21-year-old took just 33 minutes to wrap up the third set and book his place in the second round, where he will meet Frenchman Florent Serra.
Three-time semi-finalist Roddick, who is seeking atonement for his embarrassing loss to eventual champion Roger Federer in the semi-finals 12 months ago, breezed to a 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Czech Lukas Dlouhy.
Russian number four seed Davydenko surrendered his serve in the early stages of his battle with Michael Llodra, but 44 unforced errors from the Frenchman eventually took their toll as the three-time quarter-finalist won 7-5, 7-5, 6-3 in two hours.
