Tennis legend Andy Murray’s career has come to a tearful end in Paris.
Emotions ran high and tributes have flowed after Murray and his doubles partner Dan Evans were overpowered in their Olympic quarter-final by American pair Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, 6-2 6-4.
The finish line has been in sight for some time for the injury-cursed Murray and this match was the full-stop on a career filled with memorable moments and the odd lowlight.
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The 37-year-old had previously stated the 2024 Games would be the final event of his career, and he undoubtedly dared to dream of one more highlight before the curtain closed for good.
Sadly, it wasn’t to be.
The British pair had managed to stave off a total of seven match points — well, in this case, let’s call them “retirement points” — earlier in the tournament, five in the first round and then two more in the second round, to extend Murray’s career.
But they could not create that sort of magic again against the third-seeded Fritz and Paul.
After the match, it all hit home for an inconsolable Murray. Tears flowed but so did the applause and the tributes.
However, behind the scenes, Murray showed he still had a sense of humour …. and still showed his fans he could smile.
He quickly made a subtle change to his social media profile that eagled-eye fans soon spotted.
“Andy Murray’s bio immediately changing from I play tennis to I played tennis,” a tennis fan noticed on X (formerly Twitter).
Murray didn’t stop there.
He also made another little gag for his 3.5 million followers.
“Never even liked tennis anyway,” he said.
Murray is a three-time Grand Slam singles champion and the only tennis player with two Olympic singles golds — from London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. His first Wimbledon championship, in 2013, made Murray the first man from Britain to win that trophy in 77 years.
He also won the title at the All England Club in 2016. His initial major championship came at the US Open in 2012.
Murray has dealt with a series of injuries in the latter stages of his career, including needing two hip operations, one for a metal implant in 2019. Most recently, he had surgery to remove a cyst from his spine last month.
That forced him to skip the singles events at Wimbledon, where he and his older brother, Jamie, lost in the first round of doubles, and the Olympics.
When Thursday’s match ended, there was a standing ovation from the crowd. Paul and Fritz applauded, too, as did Evans.
On his way off the court as a competitor for the last time, Murray stopped and signed autographs for fans.
Within minutes, it was announced that the centre court at Queen’s, which hosts the annual pe-Wimbledon tournament, would be renamed the Andy Murray Arena.
British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer perhaps spoke for a nation. Posting on X he wrote: “1 Davis Cup, 2 Olympic golds and 3 Grand Slams.
“But more than that, thanks @andy_murray for two decades of phenomenal entertainment and sportsmanship.
“A true British great.”
– With AAP