Dunblane Claps for Andy Murray

When the ball hit the net and it was over, the Dunblane Center fell silent. Then the clapping started, loud and long. Not for Andy Roddick, but his opponent, the young man the people gathered here had willed to win with every shot.

"It's just gutting," said Jamie Milligan, 27, a friend of Jamie Murray's, who had come to the center to catch the final stages of Andy Murray's match. "It's bitterly disappointing, but Andy Roddick is a difficult character to play and everyone had been building this up as a walkover for Murray. But, you know, Andy will go away and get stronger from this. He's only young."

It wasn't the biggest of crowds that had gathered in the center to watch, but it was a noisy one. The facility, built in the wake of the Dunblane tragedy, was one of the venues for those in the town who wanted to watch the match on a big screen.

The cheering had started as soon as the cameras picked out Murray rounding the corner with Roddick and onto center court. Every winning shot from the Scot was met with shouts and applause, every missed ball, a collective intake of breath. When Murray called to the crowd for support after losing the first set, they answered him here, as if their voices could reach him. "Come on, Andy!" As the match progressed, laughter gave way to determined applause. When he took the second set, there were cries of 'Yes!' Arms punched into the air. No-one doubted that he could do it, and they held to that until the very end.

"He's done brilliantly," said David McFarlane, 60, a keen tennis player and friend of the Murray family. "We all should be proud. He made a Wimbledon semi-final and that's a real achievement. He will go on and get a grand slam yet."

Pamela Jarvis, a local drama teacher, had set up a face painting stall at the center, a facility that has been in great demand in the town in recent days.

"I've never gone through so much blue and white paint as I have in the past week," she said. "The boys all want Saltires and the girls want 'I love Andy'. I've been doing Saltire butterflies, and tennis courts. Variations on a theme. It's fantastic."

Earlier, thundery showers had emptied the tennis courts at the Dunblane Sports Club, where Murray and his brother learned to play. Shops reported a flurry of business in the morning, as townsfolk got errands out of the way, leaving the afternoon clear for the match.

Youngsters in the town, who have spent the past two weeks following every step of Murray's progress refused to be downhearted.

"He's done amazingly well to have got to this stage, I'm proud of him for that," said Jamie Hasell, 13, who had draped himself in the Scottish flag. "I've watched every single one of his matches. Isn't it great how everyone's talking about him? If people mention him, you can say, 'he's from my town.' And if you think about it, there's next year, and the one after that, and the one after that."

Kirsty Scott