"This sport is mental a lot of the time," Nadal said after a 7-6 (7-5) 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 loss.
"He has things, positive things, to be a good player.
"But at the end, everything is a little bit easier when you are arriving.
"Everything is new, nothing to lose; everything is good, everything is positive.
"You can do whatever and it will be positive, and everybody will just see the good things in you.
"When you are there yourself, the rest of the people start to see the negative things in your tennis.
"We'll see if he's able to improve and to play at a very high level for a long period of time."
Nadal said it was common for people to declare players the next big thing in tennis after one great match or tournament.
"Sometimes they are right - sometimes not," Nadal said.
"It depends how things improve over the next couple of months and years for him.
"If he is able to keep improving, he will be there - if not, it will be more difficult.
"I wish him all the best."
Nadal arrived at Wimbledon fresh from his ninth French Open triumph, but also with a clean bill of health where his troublesome knees were concerned.
The five-time finalist said he was "satisfied" with his 2014 Wimbledon return, pledging to hit the beach in his native Majorca.
"It's true that my draw was not the best, all the matches were uncomfortable against players that didn't give you the opportunity to play a lot," he said.
"I fought until the end in every single match.
"I was able to play some good tennis on this surface, and that's something I've not been able to do in the last two years.
"In a way, I am not even angry today because I lost the match losing my serve only once in the whole match.
"I created my opportunities, but I was not able to read his serve.
"When you have an opponent who serves that well and hits every ball so hard, you are in trouble.
"I don't think I played badly, but that's the game on this surface.
"Congratulations to him - for me, it's the beach."
-AAP
