Roger Federer had been expected to pen yet another entry into the history books this week at the Pacific Life Open by snapping Guillermo Vilas's record of the longest winning steak in men's tennis.
Instead of erasing Vilas's name from the tennis annals, his shock second-round defeat on Sunday at the hands of an Argentine clay-court specialist on a comeback trail from a doping suspension created more of an impact around the globe.
Guillermo Canas managed to pull off something that the Swiss player's previous 41 opponents had all tried desperately and failed miserably to do. Even more astounding was that the 7-5 6-2 result was Federer's first defeat to a player standing outside the top 25 in almost two years.
Canas became the lowest-ranked player, at 60, to trip up Federer since Richard Gasquet, who then stood 101st in the world, showed Federer the exit in the 2005 Monte Carlo quarter-finals.
But for a man who has become a racket-wielding record-breaker almost every time he steps on to a tennis court, he remained unperturbed after Sunday's setback.
Federer said: 'I've come back (from being a set down) so many times, and every time it seems when I come back, it's normal. When I don't come back, it's like there's a problem.
'It's not the way it is. It's just a guy put me away when he had to. He played a perfect match in the end. He didn't give me anymore chances. I was just playing too poorly in the end to come back. So the right guy won.'
After contesting seven successive finals, and winning them all, the 10-times grand slam tournament champion welcomed the unexpected break the rare defeat would give him.
Federer explained: 'I'm a very positive thinker, and I think it's going to be good for me eventually this season. I've had a very relaxed opening to the season ... just playing the Australian Open and Dubai and having enough time to rest. So I definitely won't be worn out towards the end of the season. That's a good thing.'
