The irony is that should Lorenzo Musetti defeat Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, the Serbian will bear a greater responsibility than just his few hours on Centre Court.
Twice already the Italian has faced Djokovic at a Grand Slam and twice taken him to five sets.
While both ended agonisingly for Musetti, he believes they have made him the player to make the final of Queen’s and the last four of Wimbledon.
“I played him many different times at a different stage, even big ones like of course two times in the French Open,” he said.
“I have to say with Nole [Djokovic], after the match I always finished with a lesson. Of course, the last match was really an intense match from both players and a really stressful match.
“And the win [over Taylor Fritz in the quarter-finals] is probably the result, I think I can have a chance with Nole in the next round.”
The 22-year-old feels like a throwback to another age, a flair player with a stunning one-handed backhand.
It was coaxed out of him by his coach Simone Tartarini, with whom he has worked since a young age, and who once banned him for a year aged 12 from using a backhand slice, such was his reliance on the shot.
Musetti has become a crowd favourite, much of the Royal Box on Centre vacating their seats to move to Court No1 to watch his last match, including Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly, actress Keira Knightley, footballer Jordan Henderson and the Queen, who even joined in with the crowd’s Mexican wave.
He has a tattoo on his left arm of a tennis racket cutting through a reading of his heartbeat, while another, an anchor, is a nod to his family and a third is a quote from his coach, meaning ‘the best is yet to come’.
Off the back of the past few weeks, that certainly seems the case and he believes he has both matured and altered his mindset since the birth of his first child, a son Ludovico, just four months ago.
After the Fritz match, he said: “I have to thank myself for the attitude that I had, especially losing the first set in not, say, a positive way where I didn’t feel my serve really well, I didn’t feel the ball, I was a little bit nervous.
“Then immediately with a positive attitude I change all my mindset, and also the feeling with the ball was better. So, that’s probably what I have to do in the next round also.”
There are few more daunting challenges at Wimbledon than taking on Djokovic, the seven-time champion. When he arrived, there was uncertainty about his knee less than four weeks after surgery on a torn meniscus.
But he seems to be getting better each day and will have been aided by the walkover against Alex de Minaur. At a time when he should have been fine-tuning for that match, instead he was on the practice courts looking very relaxed playing with his two children.
