Andy Murray arrived back in the UK from Melbourne no closer to cracking the code required to defeat Novak Djokovic in a Grand Slam.
The world number two played some outstanding tennis in the second and third sets of the Australian Open final. And yet he still left the court with nothing to show for it, and without a win over the Serb at this level since the 2013 Wimbledon final.
A first Melbourne title always felt a bit of a long shot this year. Murray left home a couple of days after Christmas, and had to cope for five weeks with the understandable anxiety of being so far away from his heavily pregnant wife.