Another final, another defeat – but Murray's followers keep the faith

"Och Andy!" wailed Linda Tront, summing up the despair of a nation as Andy Murray was beaten in straight sets at the Australian Open final last night, dashing hopes of an end to Britain's 75-year drought of male grand slam winners.

Ms Tront, clad from head to toe in tartan and sporting a large Lion Rampant tattoo, was among hundreds of Scottish fans who converged on Melbourne Park to cheer on the 23-year-old from Dunblane. But rather than watch him defeat Serbia's Novak Djokovic, they endured the excruciating spectacle of a British number one who seemed to have lost the match before even setting foot on the court.

The pre-final atmosphere had been festive, with noisy renditions of Flower of Scotland echoing around a beer garden where Murray supporters without stadium tickets had gathered. But as the number three seed lost the first set, then the second, the laughter ceased and the fans grew so despondent that the occasional winning shot from Murray provoked disproportionate shrieks of elation.

For the Tartan Army, the stakes were high. It was not just about Britain winning a men's final for the first time since Fred Perry in 1936; it was about restoring Scottish pride. "What are we good at, apart from cyclng and curling?" asked a dejected Kenny Bell, from Edinburgh. "The Scot lost again," said another of Murray's compatriots, who had the blue and white saltire painted on both cheeks. He added: "We're used to it, we're Scots. We lose at football, we lose at everything. But we're eternal optimists."

Mr Bell, who had timed a trip to Australia to coincide with the Melbourne tournament, was contemplating a long trip home. Ms Tront and her friend, Bernadette Brown, are expatriates living in Melbourne. But the blow of Murray's defeat was just as harsh.

After watching him lose his third grand slam final – he was defeated by Roger Federer in Melbourne last year and at the US Open in 2008 – Ms Brown declared herself "gutted". She added: "I thought he would get the monkey off his back this year. But he didn't come out as if he was a winner. He looked as if he just knew it wasn't his title."

Earlier, she sat head in hands as Murray produced error after error, struggling to win even his service games. Passing around home-made fudge, Ms Tront was more vocal – "Come on, Andy, over the net, son!" she cried, as he flunked yet another return. And: "Go on, Andy, you show 'em!" And then, less sympathetically: "Get a grip, you big sook!"

Some fans turned to drink. "Has he [Murray] won yet?" murmured one young Scot, lying prone in the grass as Djokovic served for the championship.

Murray's supporters will stick by him, for what else have they got? Last night, though, the disappointment was particularly bitter.

For with Federer and Spain's Rafael Nadal knocked out in earlier rounds, it had been the Scot's best opportunity to end Britain's grand slam famine. And at Melbourne Park he emphatically failed to rise to the occasion.

No one quite dared say it, but some spectators hinted delicately that their hero might be a "choker".

"Maybe he can't hold it together for the big finals," said Caroline Houston.

The big fear is that Murray will prove to be another Tim Henman – the repository of British hopes, never to be consummated. But the fans are not ready to give up on him just yet. "I think his time will come," declared an optimistic Louise Simpson. "Maybe at Wimbledon."

'He's better than Perry, but he will never be a hero like him'

By Sarah Morrison

* Tennis player John Reynolds clearly remembers the last time a Briton claimed a Grand Slam victory. But yesterday the 81-year-old's hopes of seeing a second Briton pull off the feat were disappointed. Mr Reynolds, who was seeded 3rd in the world in the over-75 doubles category and still plays three times a week, recalled hearing of Fred Perry's third Wimbledon victory, in 1936, after watching Andy Murray lose in the Australian Open final.

While admitting that Murray could not be a hero for him like Perry was, he conceded: "Of course, Murray is better than Fred Perry, he is better than anybody we have ever produced. Fred Perry wouldn't have won if he was out there today."

Of Perry's victory, Mr Reynolds said: "I was seven and playing a tennis match on the courts in the local village club when Fred Perry won in 1936. There were no portable radios in those days, but we all lived within a mile of the club. Somebody heard it on the radio and told us he had won. It was a very exciting moment for British tennis and a euphoric moment for us.

"Perry was a hero to me when I was a boy but back then everyone was a bit more blasé. Once everybody at the club heard Perry had won, we carried right on playing tennis.

"Perry had what it took to be a champion though. The older one gets, one looks less and less for heroes, but while I revered Perry in my youth, I don't think Murray has the same effect on me. He certainly doesn't have the personality of Perry, who was anti-establishment.

"In the days when Fred Perry played, it was a very snobbish era in tennis. You had to be middle- to upper-class to even think of joining a tennis club. His reaction was to make himself so much better than everybody else, so they didn't dare leave him out."