When Emma Raducanu took a stroll along Elwood Beach last Monday, she will have been very mindful of her footing.
The 2021 US Open champion was nursing a tender left ankle, which she had turned on a slick indoor court in Auckland four days previously.
It led to her sixth retirement since the start of last year, threatened her participation in the Australian Open, and punctured the optimism she had been feeling about the new year.
"We were thrown a bit of a curveball the first week," was the way Raducanu put it.
But the ankle has healed, and even if preparation for this particular Grand Slam has been a little thin, the optimism has returned, too.