Just ask Tommy Robredo, who had sailed through the Heineken Open as though his destiny was to enter the Australian Open today with a fifth ATP singles title.
Instead, his Spanish compatriot David Ferrer brought his A game, hustled relentlessly and pulled off a minortactical masterstroke en route to a 6-4, 6-2 victory.
Having been to the net a few times in his previous four games, the 24-year-old galloped up repeatedly and once there volleyed pretty well. If Robredo was anticipating a baseline battle as befitting two men raised on clay, he would have been surprised by Ferrer's willingness to mix it up.
Ferrer struck the ball harder than Robredo and between points his walk was that of a purposeful man who would not be denied.
All the important numbers favoured Ferrer, notably clean winners, unforced errors and break points won - four from six, compared to one from four for Robredo.
Ferrer also handled the on-off nature of the match better than Robredo, who seemed put off his stride by the weather which meant three re-starts. But the key to Ferrer's third singles title - and first on hardcourt - were his legs. He spent the week running, chasing down seemingly ungettable balls and was richly rewarded.
"My game is run all the time. I win points with my save. I need to run every point," he said. "This week I play well, but this match I play my best tennis of the week. It's unbelievable."
The world No 14 might have benefitted from having a couple of tough contests during the week, whereas Robredo was only once pushed, in his three-set quarter-final win over German Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Robredo was hurt by his failure to get the job done after looking every bit the world No 7 in the week.
"It's not always possible to win and David did the job better than me and deserved the title," Robredo said.
In the doubles final, which began on Saturday but ended yesterday, South African Jeff Coetzee and Dutchman Roger Wassen tipped over top seeds Simon Aspelin of Sweden and South African Chris Haggard in a lengthy battle.
After dropping the first set, the unseeded combination battled back to win 6-7 (9-11), 6-4, 10-2.
