Andy Murray suffered a third successive Grand Slam semi-final defeat to Rafael Nadal, going down 4-6 2-6 6-3 2-6 at Flushing Meadows.
The British fourth seed had fancied his chances against a frequent foe on concrete after defeats on clay and grass but despite a third-set fightback, the tale turned out to be all-too familiar - one of the Spaniard's superiority when it mattered most.
Nadal arrived yet to drop a set in the tournament and though that run was ended, he delivered another masterclass of strength in mind and body, while Murray expended too much early energy through his own frustration.
He failed to take a break point in the fifth game, before surrendering his own serve in the next, and squandered three more chances early in the second set, the third and best one weakly stabbed into the net.
Superhuman
The Scot's hopes were fading as quickly as the sun on the New York skyline when he volleyed wide to go 2-3 down and then went long at 2-5 to gift Nadal the double break.
But Nadal's superhuman levels finally dropped at the start of the third set - as they had at Wimbledon - and a fist-pumping Murray's belief seemed restored when he broke at 5-3 and went on to halve the deficit with a brave volley.
An increasingly raucous New York crowd roared on the Scot but he wilted in the fourth set, fatigue from his gruelling last-eight win over John Isner seemingly setting in.
He fought back from 40-0, even winning a point with a broken string to force a break point in the third game but could only net a backhand and the momentum shifted back across the court.
A double fault in the next game gave Nadal the break and the boost he needed and though Murray staved off three break points in the sixth game, it merely delayed the inevitable.
