We have been here before with Andy Murray, wondering if he will depart the Australian Open, never to return again.
So perhaps not too much should be read into his obvious despondency after what was, by ranking, his worst defeat at a Grand Slam.
His loss — 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 — to Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel meant that Dan Evans was the last British singles player left in the third round.
The twice Wimbledon champion looked to have suffered a mental and physical letdown after his stirring first round win over 21st seed Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Andy Murray crashed out of the Australian Open to Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel on Thursday
Backing up the tantalising glimpses of the old Murray, the one who reached last weekend’s final in Sydney, is proving increasingly difficult.
So much so that he questioned whether he would have the motivation to keep going if there were too many repeats of this in 2022. The lightning-quick Daniel played well above his ranking of 120 in the world, but Murray has never lost to someone that low before in a major.
Asked if he would be back in Melbourne, he replied in the affirmative but added: ‘Not if I do what I did tonight too often this season.’
The Scot has already helped improve his ranking this year, and is at a higher level than his world No 113 suggests. He confounds expectations of someone playing with a metal hip.
Yet he is still only on the cusp of the top 100 and in need of wildcards to avoid going through the grinder of qualifying most weeks.
Since his return to action at Queen’s last summer, he has relied on wildcard entries to get him into 14 out of 16 tournaments.
It was the first time that Murray has lost to someone outside the top 100 at a Grand Slam
The Scot admitted that only reaching the second round of majors is not of interest to him
His sights are higher. ‘I want to perform well in the big events,’ said Murray. ‘Tonight was not good enough in that respect.
‘Making
