As two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray flew home from Brisbane after another comeback foiled by the same old injury, was he leaving behind any hope of scaling the tennis heights again?
The 30-year-old has pulled out of the Australian Open and will now consider whether to have surgery on a hip complaint that has restricted him to exhibition matches since July.
Former British number one Andrew Castle had a hip replacement at 49, while Tommy Haas, the German former world number two, returned from major surgery on the joint to play at the top level, even beating Roger Federer at Stuttgart in June last year.