Frenchman Gilles Simon believed he had almost the entire locker room behind him as he launched his brave take-down of Novak Djokovic on Sunday, but not even all that good will, or a fascinating tactical challenge could stop the world No.1 on his march to a sixth Australian Open title.
Even if Simon had something of a "moral" victory, or a locker-room win for "morale", by dragging out Djokovic's worst tennis in a grand slam for many years, the Serb still took the victory that mattered - winning the engrossing fourth-round match 6-3, 6-7 (1-7), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarter-finals where he will met an opponent with whom he has a score to settle. 
In an interview before Sunday's match, Simon claimed that the vast majority of players at Melbourne Park were in his corner during the epic 4 hour quest, revealing there was a growing feeling in the locker room that Djokovic's dominant reign had become "boring".
"The players are getting tired of it ... It's a bit humiliating," Simon told a French newspaper, insisting that such a sentiment was nothing personal towards Djokovic.
"It's not that Novak became arrogant, but on Sunday there will be many people rooting for me in the locker room. Almost everybody."
If indeed that was the case, then Simon gave those crusading against the 10-time grand slam champion something to be encouraged by, showing the world that the sport's superman was not in fact immortal - if not plain average at times - by becoming the first player to take not one, but two sets of Djokovic this year.
Simon's pre-match "boring" comments were fitting, as he would go on to implement a plan designed essentially to "bore" Djokovic out of Rod Laver Arena, constantly hitting ground strokes into the middle of the court - at varying, slower paces - and daring Djokovic to force winners.
As one of the greatest defensive players in tennis history was forced to play predominantly "offence" for much of the match, the result was an astounding number of unforced errors off the racquet of Djokovic - 100 in all, and many of them poorly-timed drop shots.
During his post-match interview, Djokovic indulged a member of the crowd who wanted to answer a question put to Djokovic about what he needed to fix before his next match.
"No more drop shots", the crowd member yelled out, to which Djokovic replied: "I hate to say it, but you're absolutely right".
Djokovic grew increasingly frustrated - visibly and audibly so - with his declining standard of play as well as his inability to convert a series of break points.
To make matters worse, Simon would suddenly spring out of his passive, "slow play" style at key moments to produce blistering passing shots and even outplay his more celebrated opponent in many of the long, crowd-pleasing rallies - taking the tie-breaker in the second set and then the fourth set as well before eventually going down in front of a capacity crowd willing him on.
Admitting he was "just glad to get out of that one", Djokovic said Sunday's performance proved that Simon was "one of the best, if not the best counter-punchers we have on Tour" in a gracious compliment of the Frenchman's defensive game.
To give an idea of the magnitude of the upset that almost was - and an insight as to the world-beating Simon was talking about pre-match - the win moved Djokovic's win-loss record to 82-5 since he won the Australian Open here last year.
Simon had beaten Djokovic only once in the past 10 matches, and had he completed the massive boilover it would have been Djokovic's earliest exit from a Grand Slam since he was eliminated in the third round of the 2009 French Open.
Instead Djokovic advanced to the quarter finals of a Grand Slam for the 27th consecutive occasion, a streak that equalled Jimmy Connors in second on a list headed by Roger Federer with 36 straight appearances in the round of eight.
Although Djokovic eventually found his big league play to break Simon twice in the fifth set and close it out, the dent to his invincibility came as a timely jolt for the event and his quarter-final opponent, Japanese star Kei Nishikori, who himself produced his best tennis of the tournament in a straight sets win over Frenchman Jo Wilfried Tsonga at Hisense Arena, - 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 in just two hours.