Arthur Fery's Wimbledon fairytale has at last been ruthlessly dismantled in the semi-final by Alexander Zverev, but young Aussie Cruz Hewitt won't forget how he helped play a part in the British wildcard's great adventure.
Hewitt, son of former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt, was asked to be Fery's hitting partner to help him warm up for his last two matches during his unlikely run.
After Hewitt, who's enjoyed his own special week by reaching the boys' semi-final on Friday, helped prepare Fery for his match against ninth seed Flavio Cobolli, which the 23-year-old from Wimbledon won, the Brit, who's become an overnight hero, asked his 'lucky charm' to help again before the Zverev match.
Alas, though, Hewitt's magic touch proved in vain this time a few hours later when the unheralded 23-year-old world No.114 Fery was outclassed 7-6 (7-0) 6-2 6-4 by the German second seed.
Zverev now becomes the first German man since Boris Becker in 1995 to make the final here, while joining an elite group who've reached the championship match at each of the grand slams.
Hewitt often warms up with his father, who is at the All England Club taking part in the senior invitational doubles. "But Arthur Fery actually asked me to warm up so we warmed up together and I was very lucky to hit with him," enthused the Sydney teen.
"We were going to warm up at the same time and I think his coach might have asked my coach if I wanted to hit - and, of course, I did."
Meanwhile, life was set to change for Fery, despite his comprehensive defeat by the French Open champion. He's only the second wild card to have got this far at Wimbledon, after Goran Ivanisevic's famous triumph in 2001.
"It's going to change things, for sure," sighed Fery, who'll jump to British No.1 next week.
"I'm going to be able to play tour events at least for a full year, hopefully for more. It's important to see how I deal with that change and everything that brings in terms of expectations from myself, from the public, from everyone.
"I'm already looking forward to that. It's going to be a challenge to deal with all of that, but I'm conscious of it already and that's the first step.
"Right now I'm 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 in every match that I play."
Now Zverev is targeting back-to-back slams as he plays Jannik Sinner in Sunday's (Monday AEST) final.
"It's amazing," he told the Centre Court crowd. "This was always the one grand slam I struggled with the most and all of a sudden I'm in the final of Wimbledon. I'm incredibly happy, but we have one more match on Sunday."
"Arthur is an unbelievable player. I think he's going to be a senior citizen on our tour because I think he's going to play for 15 years plus and I really think he's going to do amazing things in this sport."
