As his career heads into extra time Andy Murray continues to defy convention, and not just by showing it is possible to play singles tennis with a metal hip.
Take, for example, the way he reacted to defeat against Alex Zverev at Indian Wells. For those of us who have chronicled him over the years this was something new.
We have never seen him hurl his racket down after losing match point, nor him walk off court barking frustration into the palm of his hand as he left. Then there was the simple four-letter expletive he posted on his social media a couple of hours later.
Andy Murray continues to defy convention and the fire still burns within, leading to frustration
The fire still burns within, no doubt about that, and it is causing him extreme frustration that beating the top players is proving beyond him.
All that painstaking work, and yet next week his ranking will be down to around 170, due to him losing points from winning in Antwerp two years ago.
Murray insists that repeatedly asking events for wildcard entries does not bother him as it is an acceptable payback for all those years of injury, but at some level it must pain a proud competitor.
Murray is struggling to beat top players, but he is still flying in the face of science with his hip
With so many star names in tennis currently indisposed, tournament directors are happy to have him, but there may come a point when the offers are not so bountiful.
The good news is that Murray is still flying in the face of science by being able to play with a large steel cap inserted within a key area of the body. So well is he coping that he is playing to a standard of someone within the world's top fifty, whatever the rankings say.
The problem is that he keeps coming up against very good players, ones he used to frequently beat, and is still unable to get beyond them.
He has been able to play ten tournaments this season, and in eight he has been defeated by players ranked 13 or better, Zverev being the latest. He was not far off taking the new Olympic champion and world number four into a third set.
