ANDY MADE US SO VERY PROUD!

A tearful farewell for the greatest of 21st century

- Mike Walters

SO that is it - au revoir, we bid you adieu.

As storm clouds circled Roland Garros to pay their respects, Andy Murray took the final curtain on his magnificent career and our sporting landscape may never be the same again.

Britain's greatest sportsman of the 21st century deserved to bow out with a banquet on the Champs Elysees. Instead he was left with the leftovers of a finger buffet before the last Metro home.

Beaten 6-2 6-4 by US duo Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul in the doubles quarter-finals, Murray and Dan Evans discovered that miracles are rarely delivered to order and certainly not three times tossed his in a week.

Murray wristbands and cap into the crowd before taking centre stage for one last encore.

Waving goodbye, if there was not a tear in his eye it must have been a tiny shard of grit from the clay court.