HOW do you follow up a miracle? What next, after pulling off mission impossible?
Well, you attempt to do something more miraculous, more fantastical still.
And here at a volcanic Centre Court – under the roof, after dark and close to Friday-night drinking-up time – Emma Raducanu tried just that. How she tried.
There have been plenty of failures for Raducanu since her extraordinary US Open triumph of 2021 – but none as glorious as this one.
Against world No1 Aryna Sabalenka – the grunting Belarusian wallop merchant who has been the dominant force in the women’s game for the past 18 months – Raducanu bowed out of Wimbledon in the third round.
But for a player who has never beaten anyone in the world’s top three, this was the feistiest of defeats.
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That Sabalenka prevailed 7-6 6-4 doesn’t even scratch the surface.
Raducanu was a break up in both sets, she saved seven set points and had one of her own in the epic 74-minute opener and was a point away from a 5-1 lead in the second.
But it was Sabalenka who clinched a last-16 clash with Belgium’s Elise Mertens.
This three-time Major champion has reached at least the quarter-finals in her last ten Major appearances and it will be a shock if she doesn’t win her first Wimbledon title next weekend.
Sabalenka hits a tennis ball with extraordinary power and she roars at every point like Godzilla with a flesh wound. She is a phenomenal opponent for any woman.
Yet Raducanu went toe-to-toe for two hours, only wilting at the very last.
It is easy to forget that when Raducanu became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam singles title at Flushing Meadows, she did not drop a set but did not face any top-ten player.
This was an entirely different test to anything she faced in the Big Apple and she had a very good go at passing it.
Raducanu said Wednesday’s defeat of 2023 champion Marketa Vondrousova had been her best performance “in a long time” – and it was probably her most significant result since her 2021 fairytale of New York.
This, however, was a major step up in class – Sabalenka has been the dominant force in the women’s game for the past 18 months, a powerful, aggressive shotmaker who can intimidate the best of them.
Still, Raducanu forced a break point in the opening game with a belting forehand return winner – only for Sabalenka to save it with three mighty serves.
The Centre Court roof had been closed before the 8pm start after Raducanu’s friend and mixed doubles partner Carlos Alcaraz had made heavy weather of winning his third-round match immediately before it.
Raducanu’s serve was firing early on, she was thumping aces of her own and relishing some high-quality exchanges.
In the fifth game, Raducanu crowbarred out another opportunity – with a stinging winner down the line – again, Sabalenka thwarted her with another huge ace.
But the Brit stuck at her task, forced two more break points – and then repelled another fierce serve before Sabalenka netted.
The crowd, subdued at first, erupted as Raducanu edged in front. Soon, they would be roaring every point she won.
There was zero evidence of any stage fright. We knew full well that this is a young woman capable of seizing the biggest moments, of conjuring impossibilities from the heavens.
Her serves had been like guided missiles in the opening three games – locating chalkdust at high velocity.
Then that service spluttered, her forehand went wonky and Sabalenka, in predatory fashion, broke her to love.
Soon, Raducanu was serving to stay in the opening set, the anxiety in the crowd palpable, and the Brit’s forehand continually clearing the baseline.
But at set point down she found another ace – then she survived six more, fingernails on the cliff-edge, before a wonderful cross-court winner earned her one of her own.
Finally, on the eighth deuce of the game, Raducanu held.
Sabalenka’s vain cries became bloodcurdling as the momentum shifted towards the Brit.
Raducanu cracked successive winners down the line, then slipped at the net and paused to ice her right thigh, before she forced two break-points of her own – taking the second to an ear-splitting din.
As the Brit served for the set, Sabalenka roared back, seized three break points and took the third to earn a tie-break.
The breaker was tight – and loud – Raducanu forced the first set point but Sabalenka rescued it with a drop shot before she clinched an extraordinary set with a deft volley.
The feeling was that having fallen so agonisingly short in the opener, Raducanu might crumble.
She did not, breaking Sabalenka for 3-1, when the current US Open champion netted.
Then Sabalenka had to save two more break points to avoid a 5-1 deficit.
But once she held, the final, decisive momentum shift arrived and the Belarusian reeled off five successive games to reach round four.
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