Dejected Andy Murray said he may never win a Grand Slam event after suffering another US Open flop at Flushing Meadows.
Expectations were high that Murray would finally end Britain's infamous 74-year major drought after the Scot upstaged tennis titans Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer back-to-back to seize the Toronto Masters title two weeks ago.
But the 23-year-old world No4 faded to a 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 6-3 third-round Open loss to Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.
''I have no idea of whether I'll win a Grand Slam or not,'' Murray said yesterday.
''But if I never win one, then what?
''If I give a hundred per cent, try my best, physically work as hard as I can, practise as much as I can, then that's all I can do.
''It's something I would love to do. It's a very difficult thing, but I'll give it my best shot.''
There is no disputing it is harder than ever to land a major, with Federer and Nadal having won 24 between them over the past seven years.
Only Andy Roddick (2003 US Open), Gaston Gaudio (2004 French Open), Marat Safin (2005 Australian Open), Novak Djokovic (2008 Australian Open) and Juan Martin Del Potro (2009 US Open) have also been successful on the game's biggest stages since Federer broke through at Wimbledon in 2003.
Never before have any two players dominated men's tennis like Federer and Nadal, who are now even closer to adding to world sport's greatest individual rivalry with a first-ever championship clash in New York.
The removal of Murray and Nadal's effortless 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win over Frenchman Gilles Simon on Sunday left the top two seeds within three wins each of completing their career slam of final showdowns.
Neither dropped a set in reaching the last 16 and Murray admitted it was small consolation his failure to break his duck in 2010 was half down to their ever-presence. Murray lost to Federer in the Australian Open final and to Nadal in the Wimbledon semi-finals and on both occasions the winner had to play supreme tennis to deny the Brit.
The two-time major runner-up offered no excuses for this defeat and said treatment for quad tightness and a feeling of pins and needles above his elbow were ''part and parcel'' of a four-hour encounter like Sunday's.
Wawrinka will face Sam Querrey for a quarter-final berth after the American ousted Spanish 14th seed Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
Eighth seed Fernando Verdasco will take on fellow Spaniard David Ferrer after withstanding the threat of dangerman David Nalbandian 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Ferrer, the 10th seed, outclassed compatriot Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-2, while Frenchman Michael Llodra was trailing another Spaniard, Tommy Robredo, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6) 6-4, 2-1 when he quit with a headache and double vision after taking too many anti-inflammatories for a foot injury.
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