David Ferrer made the extraordinary admission after his straight-sets Australian Open quarter-final loss to Novak Djokovic on Wednesday night that he believes the world's top four players are untouchable.
The 29-year-old had plenty of chances against the current world No.1 at Rod Laver Arena, particularly in the second set when he broke Djokovic twice and led 4-2 in the tie-breaker before dropping the final five points to fall two sets behind.
And from there a battle that had been going for more than two-and-a-half hours to that point lasted only 30 more minutes as Ferrer was broken twice more, making it five times for the match, to go down 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-1.
Having now won just 35-of-100 matches against top-10 players despite finishing the past seven years inside the top 20 - as well as the past two and three of the past five in the top 10 - Ferrer conceded he thinks Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray are in a league of their own.
"No, I agree with you, I think the top four players, they are better than the other ones," said a candid Ferrer, who has lost all 13 of his matches against Federer, has won just five from 19 against Nadal, five from 13 against Djokovic and four from nine against Murray.
"They are (at a) much better level than other ones."
Pressed further as to whether the gap to the top players can be closed, Ferrer added: "No, I don't think so because the last year, the top four players play all the finals in the Grand Slams."
"They were there in the final rounds and this year they are doing (it) again."
"I think the top four, it's another level."
Ferrer was obviously disappointed to have been unable to at least take the second set off Djokovic and admitted the final set got away from him as he grew tired but having won eight matches in a row before Wednesday, including his title triumph in Auckland, he did find some positives.
"I feel good, I did good (at) both tournaments, last week in Auckland and here in (the) Australian Open," he added.
"I won eight matches."
"Now I am little bit disappointed (but) after one hour (or) two hours, I (will) know I did a good tournament and feel good."
"Now I will go to home, I will go to relax some days (and then) come back to play in some tournaments again and will try to fight again."