Nadal shows Serena how to be a loser

It was past 2am here by the time Nadal was invited to reflect on another failed campaign, his hopes ended by a 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 6-2 fourth-round defeat by his under-rated fellow Spaniard David Ferrer.

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Still he found it within himself to praise his opponent and when he was asked to discuss the knee injury he has been carrying this week, he simply declined politely.

The effort Nadal puts in to the build-up to the French Open and then Wimbledon straight afterwards clearly hurts his chances here, but he gave credit to Ferrer.

"He's a very good player," said Nadal. "He is having an unbelievable season and might make the Masters Cup. He played very good and he beat me. Maybe another day we talk about the injuries."

Compare and contrast with the younger Williams sister who, for the third Grand Slam in a row — in fact the third straight event of any sort she has entered this summer — lost at the quarter-final stage to Justine Henin.

It was a fine performance from the Belgian to win 7-6, 6-1 under the lights and before a partisan crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, especially as she admits this Grand Slam is the least-suited to her quiet personality.

Williams, however, could not bring herself to acknowledge the quality of her conqueror, who appears to have recovered from her semi-final collapse at Wimbledon against Marion Bartoli.

Uncorking a rare vintage of Chateau Sour Grapes, Serena's analysis of the match went thus: "I just think she made a lot of lucky shots and I made a lot of errors."

She just about managed to concede that Henin had played "real strong" but added that the outcome of her matches was simply down to how she played herself.

"That's usually the case with me: that it's for me to win and lose," said Williams.

The fact is that Williams has run out of excuses against Henin and is refusing to admit that she has to play more tournaments if she is going to reclaim her status as the best player in the world.

At the French Open she blamed the clay for the Belgian's victory; at Wimbledon it was a thumb injury but here was a perfect environment to make it third time lucky and she blew it.

Williams' biggest problem is that she has not played any tournaments since Wimbledon and, although she claimed to be at maximum fitness, there is nothing that can quite recreate the match court.

This is only her eighth tournament of the whole year and until she condescends to turn up a little more often she might find this sequence continues.

Henin was left awaiting the winner of last night's match between the other Williams, Venus, and third seed Jelena Jankovic.

Nadal's defeat leaves the way open for Novak Djokovic to mount an assault on Roger Federer's title, assuming the Swiss were to win his prime time quarter-final last night against Andy Roddick.

Jamie Murray and Leizel Huber were edged out of the mixed doubles semi-final by Leander Paes and Megan Shaughnessy.

They lost 6-7, 7-6, 10-5 in a so-called champions tie-break now commonly used in doubles tournaments.

The next time Murray sees Paes it will be on the same side of the net, as they plan to team up at ATP events in Bangkok and Tokyo.

After that Murray will play the final indoor part of the season in Europe with Australian Jordan Kerr.