Novak Djokovic paid tribute to Kyle Edmund as he ended his impressive run at the US Open.
The 21-year old had defeated two seeds to reach the last 16 of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time but the Serbian dropped just seven games, winning 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 on the showpiece Arthur Ashe court.
But world number 84 Edmund can certainly look back on his time in New York with fond memories, following wins over 13th seed Richard Gasquet and 20th seed John Isner.
“There's a lot of learning from this, which is a really good thing,” said Edmund, who expects his world ranking to rise to 55.
“It has been a good tournament for me but there obviously still a lot of stuff I can improve on but there are loads are positives. You never want to lose but I'm happy with how I'm playing.
"If you look back a year ago, where I was with my game, now where I'm at with my game, it's nice to know I have improved over that year.
"Hopefully this time next year I can look back at the same thing. My serve needs to improve, everything needs to improve, it’s a constant process, especially when you see the standard Novak’s putting out there.
“However, to play on the biggest tennis court of all doesn't get much better. It was tough but I came off a lot happier than I was during the match because I started to impose myself in the third set.”
Edmund’s defeat and an
leaves Andy Murray as the only British player left in the singles draw - and he takes on Grigor Dimitrov on Monday for a place in the last eight.
Edmund will now reset his sights on this month’s Davis Cup semi-final against Argentina, where captain Leon Smith has a difficult selection to make for the second singles slot, after Dan Evans also enjoyed a US Open to remember.
And the world number one is also in no doubt that his 21-year old opponent has a big future.
"I made Kyle work for each point and kept him moving around the court,” said Djokovic, who had a bye through his second round and only played one set of his third round before his opponent retired.
“I want to wish him all the best. He's only 21. It's his first Arthur Ashe match so he deserves applause.
"It feels great to play a full match after a weird couple of days when I didn't have too much tennis.
"I came out of the blocks with high intensity. It's not easy to do that when you have to wait all day to play.”
Sportsbeat 2016