Andy Murray is looking at the positives after being left frustrated by yet another Australian Open final defeat.
Murray departed Melbourne on Monday as the first man in 47 years of professional tennis to lose four Australian Open title deciders after succumbing for a third time to world No.1 Novak Djokovic.
But while ruing letting Djokovic off the hook in his 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 6-0 fadeout on Sunday night, Murray preferred to reflect on an otherwise excellent campaign.
The Scot returned to world No.4 in Monday’s rankings after sliding to 12th last season following back surgery in late 2013.
And he said his run to a first grand slam final since winning Wimbledon two years ago showed he was right back on track.
“There’s been a great couple of weeks compared with where I was a couple of months ago,” Murray said.
“It’s like night and day really. I’m playing way, way better in almost every part of my game.
“I’m moving better. Physically I feel better, more confident, more belief.
“I was a lot calmer before my matches. Mentally I felt much much stronger than I did at the end of last year and during the majors last year.
“So I wouldn’t want to come away from here feeling negative about the way that I played or reaching a slam final.
“Novak has won five times here now. There’s no disgrace obviously in losing to him.”
The manner of his latest defeat, though, does rankle.
After forging a 2-0 lead in the third set, with the final all locked up, Murray seemed to have all the momentum as he chased a first title at Melbourne Park after final losses in 2010, 2011 and 2013.
But instead of pressing home the advantage, Murray became distracted as Djokovic battled exhaustion.
That was all the opportunity the Serb needed as he rattled off 12 of the last 13 games to take the trophy.
“He obviously looked like he was in quite a bad way at the beginning of the third set and came back unbelievable at the end of that set,” said Murray.
“Then obviously the way he was hitting the ball in the fourth and moving was impressive.”
Murray stopped short of declaring that Djokovic had overplayed physical distress he was experiencing.
“I would hope that that wouldn’t be the case,” said Murray.
“But if it was cramp, how he recovered from it, that’s a tough thing to recover from and play as well as he did at the end.
“So I’m frustrated at myself for letting that bother me at the beginning of the third set because I was playing well, I had good momentum and then just dropped off for 10 minutes and it got away from me.”
The 27-year-old Murray was determined this would be the last time he became distracted by his opponent in such a way.
“In all matches you concentrate on your own end of the court,” he said.
“That’s just a basic thing to do … I play enough matches to be able to handle that situation better.”
