There were plenty of reasons why Novak Djokovic hired Boris Becker as his coach.
He wanted to emulate the three-time Wimbledon champion by winning more titles at the All England Club.
He wanted to pick the German's brain on how to become a better volleyer.
What he did not want to do was to follow in his mentor's footsteps by becoming only the second men's top seed to perish in the second round of Wimbledon in the professional era.
The scowl on Becker's face as his Serbian charge surrendered the third set to Czech tactician Radek Stepanek on Wednesday may have revived the painful memories of his 1987 loss to Australian journeyman Peter Doohan.
After all, in contrast to Doohan's rapid disappearance into the tennis wilderness, Stepanek has form on grass, as he showed during his straight-sets destruction of Andy Murray at the Queen's Club tournament only 13 days ago.
"Before the match I was tense, knowing that Radek can produce great quality on this surface," the 2011 champion told reporters.
The Centre Court crowd lapped up the theatrics for more than three hours, but for all his heroics, there is only so much a battle-weary 35-year-old body can do.
After hurling his body around left, right and centre - in much the same way Becker had done during his heyday - Stepanek was eventually powerless to stop his fitter and younger rival win the point that mattered.
"He has great touch, great talent on the net. He covered my passing shots very well. He was reading it," 27-year-old Djokovic said after the 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-6(5) victory.
"Credit to him for fighting ... it was a very close.
"Could have gone either way really. So all in all, just very glad that I managed to win this match because it was a great challenge, as I expected.
"I'm really glad that I managed to stay tough mentally and win this match instead of going to five sets against a player who is a specialist on this surface."
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