Andy Murray admitted he got his tactics wrong after crashing out of Wimbledon at the semi-final stage for the third year in a row.

Just as it was 12 months ago, it was top seed Rafael Nadal who ended the Scot's dreams of becoming the first British man since Bunny Austin in 1938 to reach the Wimbledon final.

This time Murray won the first set and looked to have a real chance of beating the formidable Spaniard, but errors crept in and in the end Nadal ran out a comfortable 5-7 6-2 6-2 6-4 winner to advance to a final clash with Novak Djokovic tomorrow.

Murray has been criticised in the past for being too passive and yesterday he felt he went too far in the other direction, with a tally of 39 unforced errors telling its own story.

The 24-year-old said: "You can beat him by playing patient. When I've beaten him in the past, at the US Open and the Australian Open, I played a little bit more patiently. Today I maybe got the balance a little bit wrong.

"But you need to try to find a way. Each time you play against one of the best players you need to play slightly differently because they're going to change their game against you. You have to make adjustments."

A first set full of tension and quality turned Murray's way in the final game when he engineered the first break points, three of them, and took the second when Nadal sliced a backhand into the net.

At the time it seemed like the Centre Court crowd were witnessing the start of a classic Wimbledon encounter and Murray had another chance in the fourth game of the second set.

At 15-30, the 24-year-old had an easy forehand put-away to create two break points but he missed it, and it would prove to be a crucial moment.

Nadal held and then broke Murray when the Scot threw in a double fault and a shanked smash, and he did not win another game until the third game of the third set.

By now the Spaniard was firmly in control and he went on another run of five successive games to move a break ahead at the start of the fourth set.

The crowd were as flat as their man but they made a last effort to lift him and he responded, forcing two break points in the fourth game. Nadal, though, was playing at an extremely high level and swiftly took away Murray's hope.

The 24-year-old at least saved the first match point with an ace to avoid being broken again, but Nadal was not going to falter and he clinched victory with a classic forehand winner.

Murray did not feel the whole match swung on the earlier missed forehand.

He said: "It was a big point. I was playing very high-risk tennis for most of the match. I went for it today, and I started to make a few mistakes after that.

"But you can't talk about a match that goes almost three hours being decided based on one point. But that point was one that I should have won."

Murray saw the trainer at the first change of ends about the hip flexor injury he suffered in his quarter-final win over Feliciano Lopez, but he did not feel it was a major problem.

"My hip was sore right at the beginning of the match," he said. "After I saw the physio, took a painkiller, it was fine. I hardly felt my hip after that."

Yesterday's defeat was Murray's fifth in either the semi-finals or final of a grand slam in the last two years but he tried to take the positives.

He said: "It's tough. But I'm giving it my best shot each time. I'm trying my hardest. That's all you can do. I'm disappointed."