There have been worse starts to a grand slam final, but not many than Marin Cilic's opening set against Roger Federer on Sunday night.
The Croatian had a serious case of butterflies before switching on in the decider, eventually losing 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 3-6 6-1.
He dumped his first two service games including a woeful overhead smash to gift Federer his start, described by John McEnroe as a "true brick".
"That's one that will feel sick in his stomach," McEnroe said on ESPN.
Cilic partly attributed his 24-minute first set gift to Federer to the decision to play the match with a closed roof.
"It was a huge difference in temperature from having outside 38, then when you came in, it was like 23 ... way cooler than I expected," he said.
Fearful fans at Rod Laver Arena thought they were in for a similar procession to Federer's semi-final passage against Hyeon Chung, who retired mid-way through the second set.
Then Cilic flicked the switch.
His serve was working. The groundstrokes began to stretch Federer. The forehands beat him.
After an hour of grind, the 29-year-old claimed a tiebreak to become the first man to claim a set off Federer all fortnight.
Fittingly, it came with an overhead smash, delivered with conviction.
Cilic was working over the Swiss once more in the fourth set, carrying all the momentum in the decider.
He had two break points in the fifth set, but just like last year, Federer turned it on when it mattered most.
Cilic realised not cashing in was a turning point.
"I started to play great tennis," he said.
"I was hitting the ball great. I was just playing phenomenal.
Then the first game of the fifth set was more or less crucial at the end with having those breakpoints that I didn't convert."
The Croatian could at least see the upside to a fortnight that included a win over world No.1 Rafael Nadal.
"It was an amazing journey for me to come here to the final," he said.
"It could have been the best two weeks of my life.
"I'm playing great tennis. That's really exciting for me for this 2018."
There are certainly consolations for Cilic.
He rises to a career-high world No.3, behind only Nadal and Federer, and picks up a cheque for $2 million.
He fell a set shy of joining Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro as the only players to beat the Swiss legend in a grand slam final.
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