There was to be no third act, no third miracle for Andy Murray as his Wimbledon odyssey came to an end last night, beaten in straight sets by the massively talented Denis Shapovalov in the third round.

The fight was still there, the determination still shining in his eyes, but the 34-year-old – twice the champion at Wimbledon - gave Shapovalov too big a start in all three sets and he paid the price, beaten 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 by the world No 12, a man who shows signs of greatness himself.

Shapovalov, who won the junior title at Wimbledon in 2016 when Murray was winning Wimbledon for the second time, clinched the match with back to back aces before embracing the Scot at the net.

“This is a dream come true for me,” Shapovalov said. “I put countless years of hard work into every practice so that one day I could play on Centre Court and to play a legend like Andy and to play a match like this.

“Huge shout-outs to him, what he’s doing, what he’s done, he’s truly an inspiration to many people , including me. I’m just trying to soak in everything before I leave. It’s truly amazing to be out on this court and to play a match like today, I don’t think I could play any better.”

It always promised to be a tough assignment for Murray, the left-handed Shapovalov a man with a big serve, powerful groundstrokes, good movement and a liking for the big occasion.

Time and time again the 22-year-old Canadian, who reached the quarter-finals at the US Open last year, came up with a big second serve to snuff out any hopes Murray may have had of a fightback.

The Scot will rue the fact that he was unable to take one of his three break points at 5-4 down in the first set, having fought back from 5-1 thanks to a bit of help from Shapovalov, who got tight, and some of Murray’s best ball-striking.

But as the match wore on, Shapovalov grew in confidence even more and Murray could do nothing to stop him from taking his place in the fourth round for the first time.

He will play Spaniard Roberto Bautista in the last 16 on Monday and on this evidence, he could easily go much further.

Murray had played more than seven hours of tennis to get to the third round, beating No 24 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili in four sets in his opener and then coming from two sets down to beat the German qualifier, Oscar Otte, in five sets in round two.

By contrast, Shapovalov, 12 years younger and a fine athlete, didn’t even have to play his second-round match after Pablo Andujar of Spain pulled out with a rib injury.

There was bound to be some soreness in the Murray body after his efforts of the opening two rounds and it was no surprise when Shapovalov made a fast start, breaking for 2-1 and repeating the feat as he raced ahead 5-1.

Murray woke up, though, and as Shapovalov got a little tight, the Scot raised his game, becoming more aggressive and got himself all the way back to 5-4.

As the Canadian served for the set, Murray pushed and pushed and had three chances to get himself level at 5-5, only for Shapovalov to shut the door, the third one with a brilliant forehand drop volley that drew applause from Murray himself.

With the first set in the bag, Shapovalov raced ahead again in the second, breaking serve twice to lead 3-0 and he extended his lead to 5-1. Murray held for 5-2 but Shapovalov closed out the set to double his lead.

With the time approaching 9pm, the roof was closed over Centre Court, just as it had been midway through Murray’s first two rounds.

On those occasions, the closure of the roof was the inspiration for a Murray fightback but Shapovalov had other ideas, breaking serve in the opening game of the third and then holding serve to consolidate the break for 2-0.

Murray’s best chance seemed to be that Shapovalov might hurt himself and the Canadian slipped a handful of times, one or two of them looking a little nasty.

But Shapovalov stayed strong and never looked like he would give it up, holding for 3-0 but Murray kept fighting, holding from 15-40 to get on the board at 4-1.

The crowd inside Centre Court did their best to lift him, with a rendition of Let’s go, Andy, let’s go” but Shapovalov showed him no mercy and held on to clinch victory and take his place in the last 16.

Murray will rise to No 102 in the rankings, only a start in terms of where he would like to be, but good enough to get him direct entry into the US Open next month.