Alex de Minaur was proud of leaving his heart out on Court Philippe Chatrier but a Paris dream is over, his hopes of reaching the French Open semi-final ground into the Roland Garros clay-court dust by relentless Olympic champion Alexander Zverev.
The first Australian man into the quarter-finals since Lleyton Hewitt two decades ago, de Minaur's improbable adventure came to a halt as the towering German prevailed 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.
But De Minaur was far from disgraced in Wednesday's straight-sets at the end of a glorious breakthrough Roland Garros adventure in which he'd proved he could live with the best, even on his least productive surface.