Roger Federer was the first to admit he wasn't Roger Federer on Thursday night during his third-round loss to Andreas Seppi.
He was the last to admit that his advanced age or the notion that his best tennis is behind him were the culprit.
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Tennis.com reported not only on Federer's stunning four-set defeat to a player who had never beaten him in 10 previous matches in an event in which he'd reached at least the semifinals for 11 straight years, but also on the media's postgame offer of excuses for Federer's play.
At 33 years old, the Swiss tennis superstar likely will field those questions every time he bows out early from a tournament for the rest of his career.
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In some respects, Federer could take his post-match news conference as a sign of ultimate respect, the media seeming ready to give the "old man" a pass on a poor performance.
"It was just a bad day," USA TODAY Sports quoted Federer as saying to reporters after the 6-4, 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(5) loss to Seppi. "I felt for some reason this morning it was not going to be very simple today."
That gave the media the ammunition to pounce on the age theory, one reporter asking whether Federer thinks that as he continues to play, he'll have more days of feeling less than at his best before a match.
"I don't read anything into that," Federer said, shooing such a suggestion. "It's just not the best feeling to have. It's not like I'm playing shocking or I'm feeling shocking. It's one of those things you look back and (think), 'Yeah, I didn't feel so good.' But if you win, you never even question it."
There were other plausible explanations, all shot down by Federer.
It started in his previous match against Simone Bolelli, who won the first set from Federer as Federer clearly was bothered by his right pinky finger. Federer never mentioned it.
The idea of playing a morning match after playing a night match two days earlier, giving him less than 48 hours recovery time. He said he'd done that countless times.
He was asked about his extended 2014 schedule that included Switzerland's Davis Cup victory and team tennis in India. He said he'd just won Brisbane and felt good about his game.
USA TODAY Sports even posed the question whether the 17-time Grand Slam champion would ever win another major.
It's what Federer can expect every time he fails to meet expectation for as long as he continues to play.
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