When he exited March's Miami Open in the second round, Kevin Anderson realized it was the right moment to call time on his 15-year professional career.
He may have taken a few more weeks before announcing his retirement but the 35-year-old South African revealed he had been mulling over the idea for a while.
"For many months I was continuing to play even though I felt my sheer passion and determination weren't maybe quite there as they had been before," the two-time Grand Slam runner-up said from his home in the American state of Florida.
"After Miami I realised it had been slow progression over the last few months. It's been a tough couple years for me. I've had multiple knee surgeries, but not just physically - mentally and emotionally, it's been challenging."
However, Anderson toyed with the idea of making a last appearance at a Grand Slam - where his best run was when finishing as a runner-up at both the US Open, in 2017, and Wimbledon, a year later - before bowing out.
"It crossed my mind to play one more big tournament but my whole career has been focused on training professionally, being prepared for tournaments and wanting to do well," he said.
"I knew it was time to step away. For me not to be fully vested in the competition and prepared and just to go and play at, say Wimbledon, for the sake of doing it one more time would not be who I am as a tennis player and I'm okay with that."
A succession of injuries and operations eventually took its toll on the big-serving South African, who reached a career-high ranking of number five in July 2018 - the highest by an African since the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) started their ranking system in 1973.
A combination of inactivity and early exits from tournaments saw him slide out of the top 100 in April last year.