They tell you to savor the journey, but what if it prevents you from reaching your ultimate destination?
After losing to Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals of the US Open, Andy Murray found himself ranked outside the top 10 and facing a difficult path to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
To his credit, Murray scuffled and scraped his way into the London year-end event, playing six straight weeks and winning 20 of 23 matches. But Sunday, it appeared that sprawling schedule that included China, Austria, Spain and Paris left him weary and uninspired.
In the tournament's opening round-robin match, the No. 5-seeded hometown boy was swept aside 6-4, 6-4 by Kei Nishikori, who was appearing in his first tour championship.
In the Group B evening match, No. 2 Roger Federer defeated No. 7 Milos Raonic with ease 6-1, 7-6 (0).
After saving a set point in the second frame, Federer won all seven of the points in that tiebreaker.
Why so emphatic? Perhaps it was because two weeks ago Raonic scored the biggest win of his career, a quarterfinals win over Federer in Paris. Federer has now won seven of eight matches against Raonic.
Raonic, at 23, is the youngest player in the field; Federer is a decade older. Technically, Federer still has a chance to wrest the No. 1 ranking away from Djokovic, but he'll have to run the table in England.
You can see Monday's matches on ESPN3, beginning at 9 a.m. ET. Group A singles play features Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka versus Tomas Berdych and No. 1 Djokovic against US Open winner Marin Cilic. The No. 1-ranked doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan is also in action.
After beating Murray, Nishikori said his success this year has him thinking positively.
"I try not to think, you know, I can't beat these guys, because I've been beating those top 10 guys already," he said in his postmatch news conference. "I was a little bit tight in the beginning, but I start feeling little more confidence in especially second set.
"I was [a] very, very solid player. Yeah, I was little bit surprised at how I played on the court, very confident."
Nishikori, the No. 4 seed in London, has always been a brilliant ball striker. You could see it a decade ago when he arrived from Japan at the age of 14 at Nick Bollettieri's tennis academy. When he won his first title at the age of 18 in Delray Beach, he seemed on the verge of a big-time breakthrough. But it was more than four years before he won his second.
This year, with the help of coach Michael Chang, Nishikori finally scored that breakthrough. The shots and the precise footwork were a given. What he lacked was the patience to hang with the best players in long rallies. Or was it confidence? Whichever came first, Nishikori (now 53-12) is nearing the end of his best season ever.
He won titles in Memphis and Barcelona, reached the final at the US Open and won two more tournaments, in Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo, and is now ranked No. 5 among ATP World Tour players.
In the points that went more than nine strokes against Murray, Nishikori won 12 of 17. And although he was understandably nervous at the outset and wound up with eight double faults, he was aggressive.
When Murray fought off three break points that would have dropped him into a 4-0 hole in the second set, it seemed like he might have turned the match around. But in the end, his serving cost him; Murray failed to land a first serve in the match's last game and won only seven of his 26 second serves.
Nishikori, thus, beat Murray for the first time in four tries.
Before the event began, Nishikori said he was excited to be there.
"This is my first experience here," he said. "I want to win the whole thing. But it will be a tough tournament. If I can play good tennis for five matches, I will have a chance to win the whole thing. I just need to believe in myself."
That belief could carry him into the semifinals.