Until this week in Melbourne, world number one Ashleigh Barty had not played a competitive match since 28 February last year.
A three-set defeat by Petra Kvitova in the semi-finals in Doha may have stung at the time, but high-profile events in Indian Wells and Miami were just around the corner.
Or so she thought.
All professional tennis was suspended on 11 March because of the coronavirus pandemic. And although the tours resumed in August, Barty decided not to travel to Paris to defend her French Open title the following month.
"The decision was probably the toughest of the whole year - not being able to try and defend my first Grand Slam title," the 24-year-old says in an interview with BBC Sport in the run-up to next week's Australian Open.