In his final BBC Sport column at the Davis Cup in Madrid, Jamie Murray discusses Great Britain’s semi-final exit against a Spain side inspired by Rafael Nadal, the lessons that need to be learned from the inaugural finals and trying veganism.

Overall the Great Britain team had a very good week at the Davis Cup finals, reaching the semi-finals and with all of us enjoying being part of the new-look tournament.

Although the manner of the semi-final defeat by Spain is going to hurt Neal Skupski and me for a little while, it was a great match against Rafael Nadal and Feliciano Lopez in the deciding doubles.

It was exciting and the crowd were right into it – that’s what the Davis Cup is for me.

It is just a shame Rafa and Feli were so inspired!

I couldn’t touch Rafa’s serve; everything was 195kph on the lines.

On one of the set points we had, I had a volley I could have maybe done a bit better with but it was a good return close to the net, it wasn’t easy to deal with it.

Then Rafa had that amazing lob from full stretch forwards on another, which is pretty tough to do.

It is unfortunate, but you’ve got to give Rafa and Feli massive credit.

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The match helped show again what a great sport doubles is, that it is so fun and exciting.

In this case, it was a contrast of styles, with singles players going against specialist doubles players with different skill sets.

It was a good platform for doubles to show itself in its best light.

To see Rafa fighting so hard for his country in the decisive doubles rubber was cool. Obviously those top singles players aren’t playing every week – but when they do, it is exciting and it elevates our discipline.

‘Pique would be silly not to talk to the players’

For the players, the tournament was a positive experience. I particularly enjoyed seeing all the players and fans from 18 different nations being in the same place and wearing their national colours – and I thought organisers Kosmos did a good job from our perspective.

With this new ‘World Cup of tennis’ event being such a radical change from the old home-and-away format, there were always likely to be some issues and there are obviously a couple of major things that need to be addressed going ahead.

One is the scheduling because some matches weren’t finishing until the early morning, including one at 4:04am between the United States and Italy.

A solution could be to have a second venue in Madrid, somewhere that’s got two or three courts like the Caja Magica.

That would mean matches could be split across both venues and played in one day-to-evening session, instead of a day session followed by a night session like this year.

If they had six courts, the three at the Caja Magica and three somewhere else, then they can have one tie on each court and start at midday or early afternoon.

That would see play go through to the evening or until about 10pm and stop the late finishes we have seen this week.

The second issue is getting the stadiums fuller for all of the matches, because only the Spain matches were sold out.

We were fortunate we had a lot of British fans who travelled to the event and made it a good atmosphere for all the matches we played. It wasn’t like that for all the other matches.

I do think the organisers missed an opportunity there by not giving the unsold tickets to schoolchildren and getting them in to watch the matches.

That would have been a good idea and would have exposed young kids – the future of the sport as potential players and fans – to tennis.

Once the tournament finishes, I would hope that Kosmos president Gerard Pique and the International Tennis Federation speak to the players to get our views on the week. I think it would be silly not to.

I’m sure they are already aware of the good and the bad things from this week and they need to address the things that didn’t work.

With them investing so much money into the event, they will want it perfect.

I think there were positives this week and they will want to build on them to make next year even better.

‘I’ve tried eating vegan and would consider becoming fully vegan after tennis’

When we were playing in Basel last month, I posted a picture of a few of the British guys – me, Neal Skupski, Dan Evans, his coach Mark Hilton and our Davis Cup captain Leon Smith – with a caption ‘Back the (vegan) Brits’.

Evo is vegan and Hilts is doing it, so we were all eating vegan that week, going to a Thai restaurant every night for vegan food.

I’ve tried veganism before. I’m not fully vegan but I think as a base diet, the staple of your diet, it is really good.

But I find it too hard to maintain when I’m travelling and also it is about making sure you get enough content to eat. If I’m at home, I can control it but sometimes when I’m travelling it is out of your control, in terms of what food they provide at tournaments.

I did it for a couple of weeks after the French Open and I lost about two and a half to three kilos.

That tells you I probably needed to lose it, or I could afford to lose it, but I wasn’t eating as much as I needed to – that’s why I was losing the weight because I wasn’t getting the calories in.

It’s tough to say if that weight loss affected my training levels or performance, positively or negatively. I couldn’t honestly say if it was beneficial or not, I don’t know.

I think if I was eating enough food, then going vegan full-time would be fine, but at the time I was training a lot and not getting enough calories.

That was because I was getting food delivered each day, which had a certain amount of calories that I wasn’t used to and I wasn’t topping up loads.

I like the ethics of veganism and for me the biggest thing was for my own health.

Post-career, I would maybe think about becoming fully vegan. You have less appetite because you are not working out as much and need to be more aware and careful – as you need to keep the weight off otherwise you would balloon!

Jamie Murray was talking to BBC Sport’s Jonathan Jurejko in Madrid.

Roberto Bautista Agut put Spain 1-0 ahead in their Davis Cup final against Canada with an emotional victory over Felix Auger-Aliassime in Madrid.

Bautista Agut, making a surprise return to the team following the death of his father on Thursday, beat the 19-year-old 7-6 (7-3) 6-3.

He was in tears after the win while addressing the jubilant crowd.

Spain will seal victory if world number one Rafael Nadal beats Denis Shapovalov in the second singles rubber.

Canada are in their first final, while Spain are chasing a sixth title.

The final is a best-of-three tie, where a doubles rubber would decide the outcome if the teams are level after the two singles matches.

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Bautista Agut puts aside grief to deliver for Spain

Bautista Agut rushed home on Thursday after his father was taken ill and the Spanish federation later announced the player’s dad had died.

But the world number nine returned to Madrid to watch his team-mates beat Great Britain in the semi-finals on Saturday before being recalled for the final.

The 31-year-old, whose mother died last year, pointed to the sky after claiming victory when Auger-Aliassime went wide on the first of three match points.

“It was very special feeling on the court and I just could go out and try my best, give my best,” he told Eurosport.

“I am very happy I could win the first point for Spain.”

Auger-Aliassime was playing his first match at the revamped tournament this week after an ankle injury, with Canada reaching the title-decider by using just the same two players in all of their singles and doubles matches – Shapovalov and Vasek Pospisil.

Captain Leon Smith says Great Britain can be excited about their chances of future success in the Davis Cup despite a heartbreaking semi-final defeat by a Rafael Nadal-inspired Spain in Madrid.

Doubles pair Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski lost the deciding rubber to Nadal and Feliciano Lopez in a 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (10-8) defeat.

It clinched a 2-1 win for hosts Spain, who play Canada in Sunday’s final.

“I look forward to a really positive 2020,” Smith said.

• Great Britain miss out on final after losing decisive doubles to Spain
• GB’s semi-final defeat as it happened

Britain’s five-man team of Andy Murray, Dan Evans, Kyle Edmund, Jamie Murray and Skupski reached the last four of the inaugural season-ending finals, which are the brainchild of Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique, to ensure an automatic spot in next year’s event.

Edmund, 24, was the star player for Britain, winning all three of his singles rubbers in straight sets, despite a disappointing ATP season where he has slipped to 69th in the world.

Andy Murray, 32, missed the last three matches after struggling for fitness during a sluggish three-set win over world number 179 Tallon Griekspoor in the opening victory over the Netherlands.

Evans, who won one of his four singles matches, is ranked as the British number one, while Jamie Murray and Skupski are continuing to improve as regular doubles partner.

Smith also pointed to Cameron Norrie and doubles player Joe Salisbury – Britain’s sole representative at the recent ATP Finals – to illustrate the depth at his disposal.

“Everyone’s got their different journey to go on, but I think we should be excited by what we have in British tennis,” said Smith, whose side also beat Kazakhstan and Germany.

“We’ve got so many different things going. I think it’s great, it’s positive.

“Hopefully everyone can just keep on that path and we come back here next year with an even stronger team than the strong team we have already got.”

Jamie Murray and Skupski, who had an impressive week on his Davis Cup debut, could not convert any of four second-set points against world singles number one Nadal, 32, and 38-year-old Lopez in Saturday’s semi-final.

The Spanish pair, roared on by a boisterous home crowd in the Caja Magica, swung the momentum back in their favour and converted a second match point to leave the British contingent devastated.

“The emotion is still raw,” Smith told BBC Sport.

“You’re within a couple of points of going into a deciding third set and then it’s game on. There was nothing in it. I’m proud of all of them.

“We’re hurting, but we’ve seen an amazing tie here against Spain, who are arguably the strongest team in the competition, especially with Rafa in it.

“We’ve pushed them within a couple of points to a deciding set to see who goes into the final.

“To reach semi-finals is a brilliant achievement, we have come through tough matches and tough moments.

“Everyone has stepped up and we’ll look back proudly on this.”

Canada beat Russia 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-5) in an epic decisive doubles rubber to reach the Davis Cup final in Madrid.

The pair of Vasek Pospisil and Denis Shapovalov beat Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev in a tie-break as Canada reached the final for the first time.

They will face either Great Britain or Spain on Sunday at 15:00 GMT.

Rublev beat Pospisil 6-4 6-4 in the opening singles rubber to give Russia the lead before Shapovalov levelled with a 6-4 4-6 6-4 win over Khachanov.

In the doubles, a final long backhand from Rublev sent Shapovalov and Pospisil leaping into the air and into each other’s arms.

Both Canada and Russia have only used two players during the competition, with Russia relying on Khachanov and Rublev after the withdrawal through fatigue of Daniil Medvedev.

Canada have benched Shapovalov’s Junior Davis Cup-winning team-mate Felix Auger-Aliassime following an ankle problem and were without Milos Raonic completely because of injury.

Rublev’s singles victory over world number 150 Pospisil, who had not lost a singles match in the tournament, put the pressure on world number 15 Shapovalov.

The Canadian number one rose to the challenge, fighting back from 1-4 down to win the first set. He then recovered from 0-40 to serve out the match against Khachanov.

Khachanov and Rublev had beaten Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki in a dramatic doubles rubber on Friday, saving three match points, but they could not repeat that feat on Saturday, with Pospisil and Shapovalov coming from 4-2 down in the tie-break and taking their second match point for victory.

It was their third Davis Cup semi-final, after previous last-four defeats in 1913 and 2013.

Andy Murray will not play in Great Britain’s Davis Cup semi-final against Spain on Saturday.

Captain Leon Smith is sticking with the team which beat Germany in Friday’s quarter-final, with Kyle Edmund and British number one Dan Evans playing the singles matches.

Murray, 32, was not picked against Germany after being rested for Thursday’s group win over Kazakhstan which booked their last-eight spot.

GB face Spain in Madrid at 16:30 GMT.

Evans won his first match of the tournament on Friday, beating Jan-Lennard Struff in the second singles rubber to seal GB’s place in the semi-finals.

Smith said before the Germany tie that whether to recall Murray would be one of his “more difficult decisions”.

The Scot won his singles match in the group opener against the Netherlands but had looked sluggish as he laboured to a three-set victory over Dutch world number 179 Tallon Griekspoor on Wednesday.

Murray admitted afterwards he was still “a couple of kilos” heavier than he would have liked after gaining weight while taking time off with his newborn son and family.

Great Britain’s semi-final sees Edmund taking on world number 34 Pablo Carreno Busta before Evans faces Rafael Nadal.

If the best-of-three tie goes to a decisive doubles rubber, Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski will play Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez, although Nadal could replace Lopez as he did in the quarter-final victory over Argentina.

Andy Murray has offered to try to get tickets for Great Britain fans in Madrid who want to watch the team’s Davis Cup semi-final on Saturday.

Britain will play Spain or Argentina in the Spanish capital at 16:30 GMT.

Dan Evans and Kyle Edmund booked Britain’s place in the last four with victory over Germany on Friday.

“We will try to sort out as many tickets as possible for anyone who wants to come [and] support,” Scot Murray, 32, posted on Instagram.

It was not clear whether Murray’s offer was to increase Great Britain’s paid-for allocation or to try to secure free tickets for fans.

Murray did not feature in the quarter-final after captain Leon Smith decided not to recall the former world number one, who also missed the match against Kazakhstan after a laboured performance in the opening win over the Netherlands.

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• Relive Great Britain’s win over Germany
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The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), British tennis’ governing body, said it was talking to tournament organisers about how many tickets would be available for British fans in the 12,500-capacity Manolo Santana Court at the Caja Magica.

Britain were backed by around 1,000 fans in their opening two group matches against the Netherlands and Kazakhstan, with that number thought to be slightly lower for the quarter-final against the Germans.

Shortly after Britain completed their win, and before the outcome of Spain’s tie against Argentina, the ticket portal on the Davis Cup finals website was showing about 300 were still available for the general public to buy.

“I don’t know how many Brits are in Madrid. There could be quite a few,” British captain Leon Smith said.

“If we do have an allocation that isn’t sold out, then obviously we’d like as many people to come and watch.

“One, for the atmosphere; and two, to keep supporting the event.”