Novak Djokovic and his team of coach, fitness trainer, nutritionist and hitting partner piled into their courtesy car and drove away from his latest staggering conquest with Serbian music blasting from the speakers.
Another round of headaches beckoned for them and another period of disbelief settled on the sport they have in their hands.
The frenetic nature of tennis requires that the most recent tournament has to be swiftly forgotten and the next one prepared for, but it is time to take stock of what Djokovic has done in the past seven weeks of utter dominance.
The Sony Ericsson Open was his fourth hard-court title, one a grand-slam tournament, two of them ATP Masters and the fourth, the prestige event in Dubai.
In that spell, he has beaten Rafael Nadal twice, both times from a set down in finals, Roger Federer three times, Tomas Berdych twice, Andy Murray once, has won seven 6-0 sets, dropped only six sets and won hundreds of points with shot-making that has bordered on the indescribable.
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A quarter of a century ago, Ivan Lendl won the first 25 matches of the year; Djokovic is now 24-0.
The lad needs a rest and yet he will contest next week’s Rolex Monte Carlo Masters – he has a home in the principality – then play Belgrade, a tournament purchased two years ago by his family, Madrid and Rome before the French Open.
Defeat will come in one of those places but it is not what he is contemplating right now.
“It’s true that I didn’t expect to be unbeaten so far in the season,” Djokovic said. “But this is something I do for my life. I dedicate 100 per cent of my time to the sport.
“When I was in a little crisis last year for six months I knew if I put in the hard work, I knew I had the strokes, I knew I had the quality, I just needed to be patient and my time would come. This is what’s going on now.”
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The rest of the sport is looking on him with something approaching awe. Nadal is the man we consider first and foremost when it comes to toughing out finals and now he has been beaten twice in a fortnight by the new mean kid of the courts.
“I was there fighting until the last point,” the Spaniard said of his 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 defeat. “I have nothing left in my body right now, that’s the sport.
“For sure I love to win, not lose. Some tournaments I arrive one time to the final and you win. This tournament three times, three losses. Normally I have a very positive record in winning finals. So let’s try next year.”
On to the clay – and we know who’s the boss there.