Lleyton Hewitt of Australia brought down the curtain on Goran Ivanisevic's roller-coaster career with an 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 Centre Court victory in their third round clash at Wimbledon on Friday.
The 32-year-old Ivanisevic enjoyed huge crowd support during an entertaining, but one-sided encounter as he attempted to prolong his injury-plagued career after vowing to retire once he lost here.
The big Croat had rolled back the years with a typically swashbuckling first round Centre Court win over Russia's Mikhail Youzhny.
He then scrapped his way back on to the showcase court after a fightng five sets win over Filippo Volandri of Italy in the second round on one of the outside courts.
But there was never any chance of another miracle as he ran into a top form Hewitt failing to get even one break point against the seventh-seeded Australian.
Ivanisevic confirmed in his post-match press conference that he would retire although he said he might play in the Davis Cup rubber against Belgium at home later this year if the result of the tie had already been decided.
"Everything was perfect, everything was nice. The weather, the crowd. I just enjoyed myself," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"Everything was perfect, everything was nice. The weather, the crowd. I just enjoyed myself," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"I am happy and I am sad. I am happy with the way I played in my 15-year career and I enjoyed every minute of it.
"I just wanted to play on Centre Court again and I wanted to show that I could still win matches.
"It was worth it those two years of therapy to finish my career at Wimbledon. Best place, best court."
Hewitt lingered at the net after the winning point to share a few moments with his vanquished opponent, the two men smiling and congratulating each other.
"It was an honour playing against Goran on Centre Court," said the Australian who succeeded Ivanisevic as Wimbledon champion in 2002.
Ivanisevic took off his white tennis shirt and donned a red-and-white Croatian football jersey with the No.10 on he back as he blew kisses to the crowd and the crowd responded.
Hewitt advanced to a fourth round meeting with Spain's Carlos Moya.
Ivanisevic was competing at Wimbledon for the first time since his emotional five sets triumph over Pat Rafter of Australia in the 2001 final.
His career went into a tailspin after that triumph as he was beset with chronic shoulder and knee injuries.
But he vowed to play once more at Wimbledon and though his form was abysmal, he was granted a wildcard by the Wimbledon organisers.
Before winning in 2001, Ivanisevic lost three times in the final here, twice to Pete Sampras (1994 and 1998) and once to Agassi Agassi (1992).