Australia's tennis warriors have suffered Davis Cup despair, falling a set short of completing one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the 125-year-old competition.
A day after overcoming severe cramping to defy Alex de Minaur, unfancied world No.91 Raphael Collignon wore down late stand-in Aleksandar Vukic 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-3 in the deciding rubber to lead Belgium to a pulsating 3-2 second-round qualifying triumph in Sydney.
All up, the Belgian ironman spent almost five-and-a-half hours on court to break Australian hearts once more, after Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt - once engaged to Belgium's former world No.1 Kim Clijsters - also featured in crushing 3-2 losses to the small European nation in 2007, 2010 and 2017.
With two bold selection calls from Hewitt, his all-Sydney outfit had looked set to become only the third Australian team in Davis Cup history to overturn a 2-0 deficit.
An inspired three-set doubles win from Jordan Thompson and Cup debutant Rinky Hijikata and redemption for de Minaur in Sunday's first reverse singles rubber had levelled the tie.
De Minaur atoned for a shock first-day flop with a rousing 6-2 7-5 victory over Zizou Bergs to level proceedings at 2-2, after Thompson and Hijikata recovered from the brink in a tense 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 6-4 victory over Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen to keep Australia's hopes alive.
Thrust into the deciding rubber after Hewitt opted to rest Thompson following his epic two-hour, 24-minute doubles showing, Vukic took the opening set from Collignon.
But in the form of his career, having arrived in Sydney after taking down two-time grand slam finalist and world No.12 Casper Ruud at the US Open, Collignon could not be denied.
"It's a dream," the 23-year-old said.
"It was so tough to recover from yesterday. It was a long day, we had chances in both matches, so it was tough to wait all day.
"Lost the first set, very tight, so it was tough mentally but I stayed there and I'm very proud of myself."
While Belgium progress to the quarter-finals in Italy in November, Australia will be missing from the last eight for the first time since 2021.
Hewitt's class of 2025 had been striving to join Harry Hopman's legendary 1939 outfit - featuring John Bromwich, Adrian Quist and Jack Crawford that beat the USA in the final - as one of only three Australian teams to overhaul a 2-0 deficit.
Hewitt starred in the only other team to achieve the feat, winning the deciding rubber against Kazakhstan in Darwin to pilot his Australian teammates Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Sam Groth to the 2015 semi-finals.
Hewitt, though, said he could not have asked for more from his charges.
"Really, I'm just proud of the whole team and the effort they put in," he said.
"It's always a long season and to come straight back after the US Open, and get straight into training in the team camp and do everything that the coaching staff have asked of them.
"Yesterday (Saturday) didn't go our way, but they still held their heads high and came out and had a real crack today and then we nearly were able to pull it off."
Australia will need to win two more qualifying ties next year to return to the quarter-finals.
