Three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray bowed out of the Australian Open in the third round after losing to Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut in four sets.
The former world number one threatened another miraculous comeback on the Margaret Court Arena but ultimately lost 1-6 7-6[7] 3-6 4-6 to a player ranked 41 places higher than him in the standings.
Having been broken in his opening service game and falling 3-0 down in the opening set, Murray quickly ceded control to Bautista Agut, who broke again in game six.
By this point, Murray - who had already spent over 10 hours on the court in five-setters with Matteo Berrettini and Thanasi Kokkinakis - appeared to be struggling with a sore hip and was moving gingerly, as Bautista Agut sealed the first set with a love hold.
The Spaniard would continue to move Murray across the court expertly to go a set and a break up - taking advantage of the Briton's untimely double faults and evident physical and emotional anguish.
However, the three-time Grand Slam winner's never-say-die attitude truly came to the fore, as with the crowd on his side, he finally broke Bautista Agut's serve and won four of the next five games to take the second set to a tie-breaker.
After saving two set points, Murray witnessed Bautista Agut send a forehand into the net to level the match at 1-1, but the Spaniard needed just the one break in the third set to regain control.
Murray quickly went 2-0 up in the fourth to spark hopes of another fightback, but his heroic efforts were in vain as he lost in three hours and 29 minutes.
There would be no fourth-round berth for Murray's compatriot Dan Evans either, as the 32-year-old was comfortably beaten 6-4 6-2 6-3 by Russian sixth seed Andrey Rublev.
Rublev took just two hours and nine minutes to get the job done, although he had to wait until the 10th game for his first break after Evans had missed a chance of his own to break in game seven.
The Russian would soon rediscover his ruthless side to win seven games on the bounce, but Evans squandered a 40-0 lead on Rublev's serve in the third game of the third set to go 3-0 down.
The Brit saved a whopping five break points in his next service game and held well for the remainder of the contest, but Rublev would give little away on serve to ease into a fourth-round tie with Holger Rune.
However, Novak Djokovic would power into the last 16 courtesy of a 7-6[7] 6-3 6-4 win over Grigor Dimitrov in three hours and six minutes, despite hitting nine aces compared to the Bulgarian's 14.
Elsewhere, home favourite Alex de Minaur advanced past Benjamin Bonzi in straight sets, bringing up a whopping 22 break points and taking seven of them to advance 7-6[0] 6-2 6-1 and set up a meeting with Djokovic.
In the two all-American men's battles, Tommy Paul comfortably beat Jenson Brooksby 6-1 6-4 6-3, while J.J. Wolf prevailed 6-4 6-1 6-2 against lucky loser Michael Mmoh.
Straight-sets wins were also the theme in the women's third round, as Aryna Sabalenka, Belinda Bencic and Karolina Pliskova advanced with minimal difficulty.
Seventeen-year-old Czech starlet Linda Fruhvirtova also clinched a last-16 place after beating Marketa Vondrousova 7-5 2-6 6-3, while Caroline Garcia and Magda Linette prevailed against Laura Siegemund and Ekaterina Alexandrova respectively to set up an imminent showdown. body check tags ::
