The long goodbye Murray ends his career, not in glory, but with adulation

'Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light," wrote Dylan Thomas in 1947.

- Alexandra Topping

He could not, of course, have had the extended final act of Andy Murray's tennis career in mind when he wrote those words. But perhaps he was prescient.

At Roland Garros last night Murray raged, and did not go gently, but after an extended curtain call that produced some of the most joyous moments of the Paris 2024 Olympics, his long goodbye finally came to a close.

After a series of escapes that would have made Houdini proud in these Games, Murray and his pugilistic doubles partner, Dan Evans, finally succumbed to the American pairing of Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul last night in the Paris 2024 quarter-finals in a straight-sets defeat at Roland Garros.

In the past five years the twotime Olympics singles champion and three-time grand slam winner has repeatedly looked the prospect of his final match in the eye, and refused to blink. In these Games alone the British pair survived a first-round exit only by saving five match points against the odds, only to go on and save two more in the second round two days later.