Jack Draper had given himself no more than a 70 per cent chance of even playing at the US Open with his latest shoulder problem.
And yet the 21-year-old still cut a frustrated figure as the physicality of tennis, rather than the game itself, yet again proved his undoing in a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 fourth-round loss to No8 seed Andrey Rublev.