I was barely a month into this job when I suggested Roger Federer would never win another Grand Slam title.
The then 17-time Grand Slam champion had just turned 32, lost to Sergiy Stakhovsky in the second round of Wimbledon (thus ending a run of 36 consecutive major quarter-finals), and then in straight sets to Tommy Robredo in the last 16 of the US Open.
Put it down, perhaps, to the impetuosity of inexperience, and also to unawareness of a significant back problem, which Federer later detailed.
Not that it was remotely controversial, nine years ago, to suggest the best days of a tennis player in their thirties might be behind them.