Nick Kyrgios’ Wimbledon dream is over after the Canberra teen was beaten in four sets by Milos Raonic in the quarter-finals.

From the outset Kyrgios looked a beat behind the phenomenal level of tennis produced to shock Rafael Nadal 24 hours earlier, and backing up after that win proved a bridge too far for the precocious talent.

Powerhouse: Milos Raonic. Photo: Getty

Although he was able to take the first set off Canadian Raonic against the run of play, and was up a break in the third, he could not sustain his effort and went down 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 6-4 7-6 (7-4) in two hours and 27 minutes.

Raonic looks like a choirboy. A really big choirboy, with a bionic right arm, comic-book calves and an immovable flat-top of hair.

He was named newcomer of the year in 2011, but until Wednesday had never been beyond the quarter-finals of a grand slam.

On serve, meanwhile, the big Canadian looked positively serene.

There’s four years between 23-year-old Raonic and Kyrgios, and the former has served a longer apprenticeship at the ‘next-big-thing’ technical college both he and the Australian attend.

This showing proves that while Kyrgios is still a freshman, Raonic may be finally ready to graduate.

Almost immediately it became apparent that Raonic’s reach was going to get to more of Kyrgios’ serves than Nadal had, and they were coming back fast, deep and low.

Raonic had a break point in the fourth game of the first set, and Kyrgios had to fight off another three in the sixth.

On serve, meanwhile, the big Canadian looked positively serene.

He tightened up in the tie-break though, and Kyrgios was able to pounce and take a set in which he hadn’t played particularly well.

Big future: Nick Kyrgios. Photo: Getty

Kyrgios had the crowd on their feet in the third game of the second set when he chased down a brilliant volley from Raonic and with a flick of his wrist delivered a breathtaking forehand passing shot to avoid a break-point.

The cracks in Kyrgios’ façade, so brilliantly managed when Nadal came at him in the third set on Tuesday, were spreading.

But Raonic was consistently putting pressure on the Kyrgios serve, and the dam wall finally burst in the fifth game of the set when he secured the first break of the match.

He repeated the dose in the seventh thanks to some powerful returns and after an hour and 10 minutes the match was all square.

Raonic lost focus early in the third, and Kyrgios was able to convert his first break-point to take a 2-0 lead, but the eighth seed hit back immediately – the Australian hitting an easy overhead wide to hand the advantage back.

The cracks in Kyrgios’ façade, so brilliantly managed when Nadal came at him in the third set on Tuesday, were spreading.

He was showing signs he knew it was not going to be his day – admonishing himself loudly during games, agitatedly at the change of ends and he began to flex his left leg as if it was annoying him.

Raonic went on to take the third and was imperious on serve in the fourth – it took Kyrgios until the 12th game to win his first point against it.

This time Raonic stood up in the tie-break, with strong returns and brilliant serving giving him the match and a semi-final date with Roger Federer, while Kyrgios returns home to sort out a new coach and rest his weary body.

Still, what a 10 days for the kid, who said he hoped to have 25,000 followers on Twitter by the end of Wimbledon (at last count he’s got 65,800, thanks to the 42,000-odd who jumped on board when he sunk Nadal).

But it’s easier when no one knows your name. Now comes the hard part, when the contracts get bigger and everyone wants a piece of you.

If he can keep his feet on the ground, we’ll still be reading about him in another 10 years.

The winds of change which are starting to pick up in men’s tennis continued on Wednesday when Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov went through defending champion Andy Murray in straight sets.

Dimitrov, 23, will meet Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, after the Serb struggled past Marin Cilic in a tough five-setter.

Roger Federer, meanwhile, moved into the final four thanks to a 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 6-4 victory over Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka. Milos Raonic awaits.

Men’s semi-final draw:-

Novak Djokovic (1) v Grigor Dimitrov (11)

Roger Federer (4) v Milos Raonic (8)