Andy Murray suffered a bump in the road on his way to Wimbledon after defeat to Denis Kudla in the Surbiton Trophy semi-final.
The American beat the former SW19 champion 5-7 7-6 (5) 6-3 to advance to the final against Australia’s Jordan Thompson.
Murray, who skipped the French Open in order to get in shape for the grass season, made a good start against the big-serving American and took the first set.
However, Kudla hit back with a tie-break win in the second before seeing the match out.
Murray, who has not tasted victory on British soil since triumphing at the ATP Finals six years ago will now head to Germany to play in the Stuttgart Open next week before returning to London to play at Queen’s ahead of another Wimbledon campaign.
“I played some good matches this week. Today I’m not concerned about how I played. You can’t expect to play your best tennis when it’s like that,” he said.
“Overall it was good for me to get four matches, I would’ve liked to have won the tournament, but that wasn’t to be.”
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