Britain's Arthur Fery lost in straight sets to Germany's Alexander Zverev as his fairytale Wimbledon run ended in the semi-finals.
Wild-card Fery was looking to become just the second Briton after Andy Murray to reach the men's singles Wimbledon final in tennis' Open era, which began in 1968, but was progressively overpowered by Zverev, who will face defending champion Jannik Sinner after he beat Novak Djokovic 6-4 6-4 6-4.
Zverev took a while to work out how to beat Fery but used his natural, aggressive groundstrokes and big serve to see off the new British No 1 7-6 (7-0) 6-2 6-4.
"Arthur Fery [is] an unbelievable player. I think he's going to be a senior citizen on our tour," said Zverev, who won his first Grand Slam title at the French Open in May.
"I think he will play on it for 15-plus years and he's going to have great results. This is just the beginning of his career. I really think he will do amazing things in this sport."
Fery will still climb to a career high 36 in the ATP Rankings next week, having come into Wimbledon ranked 114th, and overtakes Cameron Norrie is the new British No 1.
His straight sets win over French Open runner-up Flavio Cobolli in the quarter-finals suggested the 23-year-old has the potential to be in amongst the sport's best players for years to come.
"It's still very fresh. It will definitely take time to get used to, to fully digest," said Fery.
"Right now mentally, physically tired of the tournament. [I'm] going to make sure I take enough time to recharge the batteries, and then just go again and do my best on every match that I play.
"I feel like I've showcased it here, but also in the past year since I came back from injury, I've played a really high-level tennis."
Fery said he would use the crowd to "my advantage" and he showed no semi-final nerves as he went head to head with Zverev in some lengthy baseline rallies from the off.
But Zverev made the first break to go 3-1 up as he punished some unforced errors from Fery, before the 23-year-old hit back immediately and it was soon 3-3.
Neither player was able to generate another break point chance so a tie-break was required and Zverev simply took off with a dominant display of serving and ball-striking to not drop a point in the tie-break and claim the first set.
Fery never fully recovered and was broken early in the second set after a point was forced to be replayed due to a ball boy collecting a ball when 0-30 down. It coincided with Zverev finding a lovely rhythm on his forehand side and raising his groundstroke speed.
Zverev's 3-1 lead quickly turned to a 5-1 advantage as he did not face a break point on his way to securing the second set.
The energy from the crowd was now seeping away and it showed on the court as Fery went 0-30 down on his second service game. Although he recovered to hold, he was unable to repeat that feat in his next service game and went 4-2 down.
It looked like Zverev was going to break for a second time at 0-40 up but Fery, urged on by the crowd, saved all three break points then made back-to-back aces. Nevertheless, Fery was unable to break back so Zverev cruised through to his first Wimbledon final.
"It's amazing. This has always been the one Grand Slam I've struggled with, and all of a sudden I'm into the final at Wimbledon," said Zverev.
"I'm incredibly happy and incredibly proud as well with everyone who was involved. We've got one more match to go on Sunday now, and that's what the focus is on."
