Tomas Berdych should be preparing himself to play the villain role at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday night when he takes on Rafael Nadal.
The Czech's poor sportsmanship in refusing to shake Nicolas Almagro's hand after beating the Spaniard on Sunday was not missed by the spectators in attendance at Hisense Arena, with Berdych copping a concerted barrage of boos as he tried to conduct a post-match interview.
Central to Berdych's unhappiness with Almagro was the No.10 seed's decision to rifle a shot straight at him when he was standing close to the net, with the ball striking Berdych in the arm as he tried to take evasive action.
While the shot from Almagro may not exactly have been from the pages of good sportsmanship either, he did immediately apologise when the ball struck his opponent.
But Berdych's decision to camp himself in the middle of the court so close to the net made him fair game for such a shot from Almagro, who could reasonably argue that had he chosen to go left or right of his opponent it would have given Berdych a good chance of making the volley.
And having gone on to win the match anyway, one could argue that Berdych got the best revenge possible for what will probably have left a bruise but clearly will not have done any long-term damage.
Almagro walked to the net after the defeat as is customary fashion looking to congratulate Berdych on the win and perhaps offer another apology but when Berdych barely acknowledged him Almagro couldn't resist firing a few words back.
And all the incident basically means is that Nadal, who is already immensely popular with the Melbourne Park fans - despite his surly mood so far this year - can expect all of the neutral support on the night, with perhaps only those of Czech extraction in Berdych's corner.
Coming up against an opponent he has beaten just three times from 14 meetings, Berdych could use all the help he can get and may have in fact been given plenty of support as the underdog.
But we'll see just how much he likes dealing with a parochial crowd barracking against him and willing him to fail when he seeks his maiden Melbourne Park semi-final appearance on Tuesday night.