Andy Murray was a bit gutted after his 7-6(1), 6-7(1), 6-2, 6-4 loss to Novak Djokovic in Tuesday night’s quarterfinal in New York, particularly because the two-time Grand Slam champion prides himself on fitness and endurance and those were precisely the things that let him down in the match.

Day 10: Djokovic Too Strong for Fading Murray

“I thought physically he was better than me in the end,” Murray said after dropping the three and a half hour battle.

The Scot, who is now nearly a year removed from the back surgery that cut his 2013 campaign short, says he needs to play more matches against physical opponents in order to get himself match tough.

“It's just an extremely physical match [against Djokovic],” he said. “Whereas maybe when I play against Roger, for example, it's quicker points. You know, so physically that's not as demanding, but when me and Novak play against each other, you obviously see a very tight, long rallies. Both of us do a lot of running. Yeah, maybe I'll gain a lot from playing a match like today. Because it doesn't matter how much training you do, when you get on the match court it's different. It's hard to--I can't practice with the best player in the world, so it's tough to practice at that intensity.”

Murray was toe-to-toe with Djokovic for the first two sets, which lasted over two hours, but midway through the third he said he started to feel stiffness in his hips and back. He was never the same from that point.

‘Yeah, definitely was fresher at the end,” Murray said. “That helped him.”