The world number two played some outstanding tennis in the second and third sets of the Australian Open final. And yet he still left the court with nothing to show for it, and without a win over the Serb at this level since the 2013 Wimbledon final.
A first Melbourne title always felt a bit of a long shot this year. Murray left home a couple of days after Christmas, and had to cope for five weeks with the understandable anxiety of being so far away from his heavily pregnant wife.
He says he would have flown home immediately had Kim gone into labour, but he knew he was very unlikely to have made it back in time.
An emotional month became even more turbulent when Kim's father Nigel Sears collapsed on the Rod Laver Arena while watching his player Ana Ivanovic during the first Saturday night session.
Murray is very close to his father-in-law and went straight to the hospital after completing his third-round match. He returned the next day, and considered flying home, before the doctors gave Sears the green light to do the same.
Murray had return flights on hold for several days. Having a bag packed and next to the front door is excellent practice for an expectant father, but it must be very unsettling when you are trying to negotiate the latter stages of a Grand Slam before attempting to dethrone the runaway world number one.
Murray is very close to his father-in-law and went straight to the hospital after completing his third-round match. He returned the next day, and considered flying home, before the doctors gave Sears the green light to do the same.
Murray had return flights on hold for several days. Having a bag packed and next to the front door is excellent practice for an expectant father, but it must be very unsettling when you are trying to negotiate the latter stages of a Grand Slam before attempting to dethrone the runaway world number one.
