Inevitably, Lleyton Hewitt and the Melbourne public suffered a huge sense of anti-climax when the unseeded 18-year-old was knocked out in the fourth round of the Australian Open by Sweden's Magnus Norman, but the writing had been on the wall from the opening few points - and it spelled "fatigue".
This was Hewitt's 14th match in a startlingly successful three weeks during which the boy wonder has won titles back-to-back in his home town of Adelaide and Sydney, and then further thrilled the record crowds here with all-action victories over the American Paul Goldstein, Spain's Alex Corretja and Romania's Adrian Voinea for a run of 13 straight wins.
But the match against Norman, who won five ATP Tour titles last year and climbed to a career-high end-of-season ranking at number 15, was always going to be tough.
Two years ago the 23-year-old Swede underwent a five-hour operation to correct an irregular heartbeat which threatened to curtail a highly promising career. The operation was successful, and last year Norman's talent was translated into sustained on-court success.
Like most Swedes he is essentially a baseliner, with a particularly heavy forehand. And it was this weight of shot, plus his accuracy, which overwhelmed Hewitt.
The Adelaide tyro had felt physically and mentally flat during the previous day's doubles, and it was a feeling he could not shake off.
"Lleyton probably needed to change his preparation routine a bit and to build up a bit more adrenalin," said John Newcombe, the Davis Cup captain, who named Hewitt, along with Mark Philippoussis, Wayne Arthurs and Sandon Stolle for the start of Australia's defence away to Switzerland next week.
"But one thing is certain, these past few weeks have been no flash in the pan. Lleyton is going to be challenging at the very top. He's always ready to learn, and he's learning very quickly."
Norman, seeded number 12, quickly found his rhythm and whisked through the opening two sets. Hewitt then showed great fighting heart by stopping the rot and set up chances to extend the match into a fourth set, but Norman - loudly supported by several groups of jubilant Swedes, one carrying a banner proclaiming "Sex, Drugs and Norman" - held firm to win 6-3, 6-1, 7-6.
In the quarter-finals Norman will play German's Nicolas Kiefer, the number four seed, who continued on his smoothly impressive way with a straight sets victory, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, over South Africa's Wayne Ferreira. Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the holder, also won in straight sets against the young and inexperienced Belgian Christophe Rochus 6-1, 6-3, 7-5.
In the women's competition US Open champion Serena Williams was bundled out in the fourth round by 16th seed Elena Likhovtseva 6-3 6-3.
Number three seed Williams, who appeared sluggish, was beaten in one hour and 14 minutes.
Her serve and forehand let her down, particularly in the first set where she made 20 unforced errors. Throw in three double faults and her failure to get a forehand winner and the signs were not good.
"I couldn't find my rhythm throughout the whole match. I'm just going to go home and start practising again," said Williams. Spanish veterans Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and Conchita Martinez battled into the last eight.
The 13th-seeded Sanchez-Vicario, a triple French Open champion, reached her 34th Grand Slam quarter-final by beating sixth seed Barbara Schett of Austria 1-6 6-0 7-5 and will next play Hingis or 12th-seed Sandrine Testud of France.
The number 10 seed and former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez wasted little time dispatching American Kristina Brandi 6-1 6-1 to set up a match with Likhovtseva.
Unseeded Jennifer Capriati advanced to her first Australian Open semi-final with a convincing win over Japan's Ai Sugiyama early today.
Capriati beat Sugiyama 6-0, 62 and will face either second seed Lindsay Davenport or French ninth seed Julie Halard-Decugis in the semi-finals.
Capriati (23), has now made four Grand Slam semi-finals following appearances at the French Open in 1990 and Wimbledon and the US Open in 1991.
