Andy Murray lost to Lleyton Hewitt in his final warm-up match for the Australian Open.
The contest at Kooyong, the former home of the Australian Open, was just an exhibition but it was very competitive and should prove invaluable in terms of miles in the tank for the Scot.
Hewitt began his season by beating Roger Federer to win the ATP Tour event in Brisbane and he looked extremely sharp in a 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-4) victory.
The main positive for Murray was how well he served, particularly in the first set when he powered down a succession of aces.
But he was a more wayward off the ground than Hewitt and that showed in the tie-break, which the Australian won easily.
Murray made a poor start to the second set but recovered well to leave him serving to level the match.
He had two chances to seal it but he failed to take either opportunity and Hewitt broke back.
Murray held to force a second tie-break and made the better start to it but he could not establish a meaningful advantage and Hewitt clinched victory with a return winner.
Murray did not fade as badly against Hewitt as he did in his Doha defeat to Florian Mayer last week, which augurs well for his opening Australian Open match against Go Soeda.