IMAGES from Day 7 of the Wimbledon Championships, at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, London, on Sunday.
The flickering hope that Emma Raducanu's renaissance could last the distance at Wimbledon was snuffed out in a fourth-round reality check against 123rd-ranked qualifier Lulu Sun, who knocked out Britain's last player standing 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 on Sunday.
Sun, who will now face Croatia's Donna Vekic in the quarter-finals, showed ice-cool composure and unflappable bravery to outplay the 2021 US Open champion in front of a pumped-up home crowd on Centre Court.
"It was a great match. I really dug deep to get the win," Sun said in a teary on-court interview.
"I really had to fight tooth and nail because she was obviously going to run for every ball and fight until the end. I don’t even have the words right now."
Raducanu, who had shown glimpses of her best form over the opening week at the All England Club, looked once again a shadow of the player whose stunning triumph as a qualifier at Flushing Meadows nearly three years ago stunned the sport.
From the start, Raducanu seemed off the pace, almost sleepy in comparison to the high-energy Sun, whose ground strokes had far more zip and penetration.
By contrast Raducanu's forehand seemed to lack its usual fizz and she seemed to fear releasing the handbrake, perhaps because every time she did, she was frequently off target.
She seemed unable to build any sustained pressure on the unflappable and indefatigable Sun, whose level rarely dipped below a ferocious intensity.
New Zealand's Sun was superior in all departments racing into a 3-0 lead in the opening set with a double break before comfortably holding off a Raducanu fightback with another break to claim the opener.
The Briton was clinging on for dear life after that, but managed to take the match into a decider with a decisive break in the final game of the second set, yet that was as close as she got to turning the match on its head.
After a nasty fall and some lengthy treatment, Raducanu was broken in the first game of the third set and again as Sun took a 5-2 lead.
Raducanu staved off one match-point but Sun would not be denied, smacking a forehand winner to earn another and wrapping up victory when the Briton hit a return long.
Navarro sends Gauff packing
Coco Gauff resembled a lost soul on Centre Court as her hopes of reaching the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time were turned to dust following a 6-4, 6-3 mauling by fellow American Emma Navarro on Sunday.
Second seed Gauff has destroyed the opposition to reach the fourth round without dropping a set but she came totally unstuck against Navarro, who produced a fearless brand of tennis to topple her more celebrated rival.
Gauff appeared to be heading for another regulation win when she broke for a 3-1 lead in the first set, but from then on, the killer shots that had carried her all the way to a maiden Grand Slam title at last year's US Open completely deserted her.
Navarro broke back in the very next game after Gauff drilled a backhand long to end a 13-shot rally and once the world number two missed two break points in the next game, Navarro knew she had got under her rival's skin.
A breathtaking forehand into the corner handed Navarro the first set and after breaking for a 3-1 lead in the second, she finally ended her rival's ordeal on her third match point when Gauff netted a forehand.
Navarro will next face Italian Jasmine Paolini, who is the highest seed left in the bottom half of the draw at seven.
Paolini in quarters after Keys retires injured
Serving at 5-2 up and deuce in the deciding set, all Madison Keys needed were two more measly points to secure her place in the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the second year in a row as she stood on the verge of ending Jasmine Paolini's incredible run.
Unfortunately for Keys, however, it was a case of "so close but yet so far" as within two points, French Open runner-up Paolini had broken back and the American 12th seed was left clutching a painful groin.
A few minutes later a distraught Keys was left in a flood of tears as she realised it was game over and shaking her head, she gingerly limped over to the net to hug Paolini.
It handed Paolini, who hails from the small picturesque town of Castelnuovo di Garfagnana in Tuscany, a 6-3, 6-7(6), 5-5 victory.
Keys might have been seeded lower than her opponent but she had been the favourite to win Sunday's showdown considering the Italian seventh seed had never won a match at Wimbledon until this week. In fact, until last month, Paolini had never even won a Tour-level main draw match on the green stuff.
Playing under a closed Court One roof on yet another sodden day at the All England Club, it took a while for Keys to underline her greater grasscourt pedigree.
And the 29-year-old Florida native appeared to have one foot in the last eight as she produced a screaming service return to secure the double break for a 5-2 lead in the deciding set.
However, the joy of seeing the finishing line in the horizon soon turned to utter despair as not only did Keys misfire a forehand into the tramlines to surrender her serve but she was also left clutching a painful left groin.
The American called for the trainer one game later and hobbled off court for a medical time out before re-emerging with her left thigh heavily strapped.
Upon resumption, she started sobbing after netting a drop shot to fall 15-40 behind. Although Keys saved the first break point with a stupendous backhand winner, she was again in tears after surrendering her serve with a double fault.
Clearly struggling to even walk between points, Keys somehow conjured a lob to win the first point off Paolini's next service game. But when she saw the next point whizz past her for an ace, Keys signalled to the umpire that she could no longer continue.
