If he wasn't already starting to believe it, world No.5 David Ferrer is now coming to terms with the reality that his incredible court coverage and willingness to run himself into the ground will never be enough to secure him Grand Slam glory.
Set to turn 30 in early April, Ferrer has finished each of the past seven seasons within the world's top 20 players, including the past two years and three of the past five when he was in the top five.
But for all his consistency and amazing fitness levels that allow him to hare around the court chasing down seemingly everything regardless of how out of position he seems, Ferrer now boasts just two semi-final appearances at the majors as well as another four visits to the last eight.
The most damning statistic for the native of Javea in Spain is that Wednesday night's straight-sets loss to world No.1 and defending champion Novak Djokovic in the Melbourne Park quarter-finals leaves him with just 35 wins from 100 matches against top-10 rivals.
A record like that says it all as to why he has simply been unable to take the final couple of steps to the Holy Grail, along with the fact that brave gut running while admirable is not sufficient against the current top four.
A major weapon is needed to consistently compete with Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, who currently boast 30 majors between them, as well as the man most likely to be the next player outside that trio to win a major.
Against arguably the greatest of all time, Federer, who has 16 Grand Slams, Ferrer has a demoralising 0-13 record, while 10-time major winner Nadal leads their meetings 14-5, four-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic has an 8-5 record and Murray has won five of their nine clashes.
Ferrer admitted after the match that the top four are clearly better than the rest and surprisingly also admitted that he doesn't believe there is currently a player close to regularly challenging them, which amounts to a concession that he never will.
He certainly had his chances to beat Djokovic but perhaps lacked the self-belief to achieve such a success, particularly as he led 4-2 in the second-set tie-breaker but then lost five-straight points.
That means he has now lost 13 successive tie-breakers at Melbourne Park, with his sole success in a tie-breaker coming way back in 2004 against Luxembourg's Gilles Muller.
The reality that he doesn't have the goods to make that breakthrough is surely a bitter pill to swallow for Ferrer, who clearly works extremely hard off the court to take his fitness to incredible levels and keep himself well entrenched inside the top 10.
That being the case, when Ferrer eventually retires he will have to satisfy himself with what he has been able to achieve, including 12 titles to date from 26 career finals, more than 400 victories and a career-high ranking of No.4.