“I shudder to think what’s going to be written about this tomorrow.” It could have been Andy Murray on Andy Murray, but instead it was Andy Roddick on Andy Murray – an American who has had to contend with the plenty and the purgatory of being a nation’s No 1 tennis hope.

The plenty is that being the best in a nation brings with it all sorts of kudos, the endorsement opportunities are manifold and you are recognised and fêted. The purgatory is that when you do not do what is expected – such as win first-round matches at grand-slam championships – the headlines seem overpoweringly bad and those fanatics who follow every nuance on your personal website feel as though the bottom has fallen out of their small worlds.

Murray will be experiencing a range of emotions today as he prepares to fly home from Australia ten days before the date most had allotted for him. A few of their number had him leaving with the trophy, which just goes to show that critics exist in a parallel universe. To expect a player who had never been beyond the fourth round of a grand-slam event to be contesting the final was outrageously optimistic and, by the time Murray had been beaten in four sets yesterday by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, of France, “egg on face” was the predominant feature of the day.

Perspective is everything and it should not be lost over one result, however poorly Murray executed his game plan. The British No 1 was too acquiescent in the opening stages and, even when Tsonga, his left leg cramping, handed the third set to him, there was not enough consistency in Murray’s play off the ground. The Scot overplayed the drop shot and his challenges to HawkEye were about as woeful as it is possible to be – his eye was simply not in at all.

Tsonga won 7-5, 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 and let no one suggest it was not merited. He was the aggressor and the better volleyer. He struck his forehand to greater effect, hardly missed an overhead and, although he trailed in the tie-break, never regarded retreat as an option. Tsonga rushed the net 102 times – a Sampras-esque statistic – and also won a point when a shot through his legs so stunned Murray that the Scot’s follow-up volley was weak enough for the Frenchman to make up the ground for a winning forehand.

“At the start of my matches I like to get into some kind of rhythm,” Murray said. “The return is normally the best part of my game and I didn’t return that well in the first set. I was leaving a lot of them short and his game is to run around, hit those forehands and rush the net. He did that really well. I felt worse a couple of years ago when I got absolutely smoked in the first round and was in bad shape. I did all the proper preparation, I’ve worked hard on my game and improved a lot of my shots. It’s not the worst I’ve felt after a defeat.” The pain may be felt more acutely in the entourage that filled four rows of his players’ box. The assorted coaches, acquaintances, family and Roger Draper, the LTA chief executive, who gave up his seat in the VIP box to be there, are a significant bandwagon, a lot of people for Murray to satisfy. What are they all going to do for the next month? Murray will head home in a couple of days to recharge the batteries before preparing for a more arduous task than this – a Davis Cup World Group first-round tie in Argentina.

He will rise to that challenge in the company of Jamie Baker, his fellow Scot, who relished qualifying for a grand-slam tournament for the first time, despite a 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 defeat by Ivo Karlovic, of Croatia.

In the women’s event, a fascinating second-round match is in prospect for tomorrow when Lindsay Davenport, the former world No 1, who became the all-time leading prize-money earner in women’s sport yesterday, takes on Maria Sharapova, to whom she has lost on four of their past five meetings.

It doesn’t add up

— Murray won more points – 137 to 135 – than Tsonga.

— Murray also benefited from 61 unforced errors committed by the Frenchman.

— Murray registered five breaks of serve, one more than his opponent.

— Tsonga hit six double faults – twice as many as the British No 1.