His first appearance in the final of a Masters Series event cannot be far away - he is not in Rafael Nadal's half of the draw in Cincinnati this week, so how about the weekend? - because every stride Andy Murray is taking is an emphatic one in the right direction. And what may follow - an Olympic medal? A semi-final at a grand-slam tournament? The unmitigated affection of the British people?

The British No1's splendid challenge for the Toronto Masters ended, like most things in men's tennis these days, at the hands of Nadal. Murray lost 7-6, 6-3, his fifth defeat to Nadal, although the account he gave of himself against the Wimbledon champion and everyone else in the tournament - bar the blur of seven games in a row he bequeathed to Stanislas Wawrinka, of Switzerland - resounded through another high-quality week's work.

“He has the talent to be top five, top four, three, one,” the Spaniard said of the Scot. If Nadal has a tendency to be generous to a fault with everyone, there should be no playing down the truth of Murray's potential. It is now being consistently and effectively tapped, to the extent that something big is going to happen for him exceptionally soon.

Of all the players in the vanguard of the sport, Nadal remains the only one that Murray has been unable to conquer. And if it appeared that he was little closer in Canada than he was in Melbourne at the Australian Open of 2007, when he led by two sets to one and was gradually worn down, those with eyes to see cannot fail to notice his immense progress. Unfortunately, Nadal has got much better too.

The high point for Murray last week was his quarter-final victory over Novak Djokovic, the world No 3 from Serbia and the best player in the first half of 2008. To know that he now has Djokovic's measure, to go with that of Roger Federer, Nikolay Davydenko, David Ferrer and Andy Roddick above him in the rankings (he has lost once each to David Nalbandian and James Blake, but both matches were two years ago) has to be an enormous fillip.

Murray will play either Paul-Henri Mathieu, of France, or Sam Querrey, the American, in the second round of the Western and Southern Financial Group Masters in Ohio. He can be optimistic about his form on the American hard courts whose medium pace suits him to a tee and will be replicated at next month's Beijing Olympics, where he heads before returning for the US Open, which starts on August 25.

Djokovic, who is finding the second part of the year more troubling than the first - which is only to be expected considering that he won his first grand-slam tournament as well as two Masters Series titles in that period - said of his fellow 21-year-old: “Andy is a very patient player, he is waiting all the time. He may not be the fastest out here, but he moves great and he knows what shots to play at the right time. He was just waiting for me.” Murray concurs. He spent his teenage years asking for time to develop his game the way he wanted to develop it and will not get carried away now. He knows what he can do, the strokes are there, the movement is improving, the balance between attack and defence evening out and the body language a massive improvement.

“I just think it takes a little bit longer to get to your highest level of tennis [than people think],” he said. “When I get to 23, 24, I'm going to be playing my best. When you have a lot of options in your game, especially when you are young, you make some more mistakes and get a little bit confused sometimes. With each match and each tournament I'm getting closer and closer to understanding the best way to play my game. I'm sure in a couple of years when I have that experience, I'll be playing very good tennis.” That may happen this week, next week or the week after that, but it will happen. And that is what makes Murray such riveting viewing.