All that remains are faint echoes of the ear-shattering applause of those times, as even unforgettable Slam moments have been pushed right to the back of his mind.

The 25-year-old from Luxembourg admits errors of judgment forced his rankings and performance to slide away into the downward spiral that his career has become — his rank has dropped from 59 to 122 — and this trend continues.

The second seed at the $50,000 Challenger circuit saw his campaign come to an unfortunate 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3 end at the hands of qualifier Travis Rettenmaier of USA today.

Flashback

Despite his assertion that the past is something he doesn’t think about now as he trudges along with tennis’s non-elite, the faintest hint of a smile is discernible as he is taken back to the best moments of his career. Just when he thought it couldn’t get better than defeating his idol Agassi at the 2004 Legg Mason Classic in Washington came a first-round upset of the great American hope — Roddick — at his home Slam in 2005. There was a victory over the grasscourt avatar of Rafael Nadal sandwiched in between.

“The match against Agassi was very emotional, he is someone I grew up admiring. That was very special, of course. It was a dream come true. Simply to get the chance to play him was amazing, beating him was unbelievable.

“What I enjoyed the most about the Roddick win was the crowd. I love playing in America, the audience there just want a big show, they aren’t against foreigners just because they’re playing against an American. I remember, at the end of the second set tie-break, they gave both of us a standing ovation,” he smiles wistfully, perhaps wishing for the past to make a re-appearance.

Lessons learnt

Banishing that assumption right away, though, he adds, “But maybe it’s a good thing all this happened. Now I know what I did wrong, and I know just how much work it is. I won’t throw it all away again. I want to be in the top 100 again, and I just have to be patient.”

He admits he’s made some big mistakes.

“To be honest, it’s not easy to be here, to play at this level. And it’s completely my own fault. Back in 2005, when I was having such a good run, I decided to move back to my country, which really has no tennis culture at all. I was a star there, and also one of the very few people who played the sport.

“I was training in Barcelona and Paris before that, which was much better. I was one of many players, and I knew where my game stood. I took myself for granted, so I shifted back to Luxembourg,” he says. For the past year, Muller has been training in Florida.