Defeat may do Andy Murray a favour in the long run

As Andy Murray surveys the bigger picture, one scrappy defeat in the Californian desert is less than a smudge in the landscape. He has Wimbledon and the French Open on his horizon and they are pinpoint sharp in his field of vision.

Murray's defeat in the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open was disappointing but he thought it was to be expected. He had not played a tournament since the Australian Open, opting instead to devote his time to physical training and practice. With the clay-court season looming and two grand slams to deal with in the space of six weeks in May and June, he wanted to be in peak condition for the future challenges. If that left him a little ring-rusty for his trip to Indian Wells and Miami, then so be it.

"A hundred per cent I would take that break again," he said. "You have to look further down the road sometimes and not just focus on one event. The tour is extremely hard and physical and

I hope by taking a break now - I wasn't expecting to play perfect tennis this week or play my best - when I get to French Open, Wimbledon time, hopefully I'll be a bit fresher than I have been the past few years."

Losing to Juan Martin Del Potro may actually have done Murray a bit of a favour. His form had been patchy all week but he had still been winning against the lower ranked men. Taking on the world No?7 was his first real test and it showed him exactly what he had to tweak before the start of the Sony Open this week in Miami. It also meant he could get to Florida a little earlier than expected and have a few more days to adapt to the slow, humid conditions.

"The first few days practising, it does feel unbelievably slow," he said. "The balls here in the desert are so fast through the air and the last few years I haven't really felt comfortable with it. But I needed matches like today against Juan, I needed to play a match like today just to see the things that

I need to tighten up on so that hopefully next week if I get the opportunity to play Juan or Rafa or Novak in Miami, then I'll hopefully play a better match."