Wondering wearily if the sun ever comes out in Paris, Alex de Minaur fears his stop-start, rain-soaked experiences at Roland Garros this week have put years on him.
But while he's endured a long, wet, trying first four days to safely get through two rounds of this French Open, nothing could stop him smiling about what he feels is a landmark moment in his burgeoning career.
For the rainbow that hung over Roland Garros after his 7-5 6-1 6-4 triumph over old junior foe Jaume Munar at the end of a wearisome, drizzly day offered the promise of something special to come as he enters uncharted third-round territory at his least-productive slam.
"I was telling my team that this whole Roland Garros experience I'm going to age a lot these two weeks," de Minaur said.
The Australian No.1 was uncertain all day about when he'd get on court, eventually doing so after 6.30pm, before the rain caused another hour's interruption just when he'd taken complete early control.
"Today was just a tough day," he said.
"It doesn't matter what court you were on with the rain, the stops the starts, everything. You just want to get on and hopefully be able to to play a match.
"So I was happy to play and also be able to finish and win.
"It's not easy, it's probably one of the worst parts of our sport, but there's nothing you can do about it. So you might as well crack on."
Crack on is exactly what he did, playing with an assuredness on the clay that ensured he will go into Saturday's last-32 tie against powerful German Jan-Lennard Struff with confidence.
"It feels great to reach the third round at last but I want to keep on going, because ultimately my goal is to go for bigger and better things," he said.
World No.41 Struff, who brushed aside 19th seed Alexander Bublik 6-2 6-2 6-3 in just 77 minutes, represents a tough ask for de Minaur, who owns a 3-2 win record over the German but lost their only meeting on clay.
De Minaur was just as convincing in his win over Munar, reducing his opponent to such a sense of powerlessness that the feisty Spaniard ended up taking his frustration out on the umpire Marijana Veljovic over a ruling he didn't like.
De Minaur's reaction, watching the supervisor come to the court to resolve the dispute, was to ignore it all, get his head down and knuckle down to a victory that means he's given up just 13 games in his first two matches.
The secret?
"It comes back to those improvements I've made this year ... just backing myself in the big moments," he said.
"If I want to be a better player, it's about playing those points more aggressively and taking it to my opponent, instead of just waiting to see what happens. I did that today."
