From the article:

After more than three years in which the German chancellor repeatedly emphasised her openness to a deal that would maintain the UK's current flows of trade with the bloc, she suggested the door leading to such a compromise had now closed.

It has apparently never crossed the British journalists' mind, even from The Guardian, that the "openness" was always linked to a "level playing field" and the UK had to agree to essential rules to keep access to the EU single market.

Now, is it the Continental side who decided they wouldn't agree to these rules?