Australian Open 2020 news - Three wins in 12 months and a ranking of 366: Time for Sharapova to quit

Indeed, when asked whether her 6-3, 6-4 loss to Donna Vekic would be her last ever appearance at the Australian Open, she could only reply: "I don't know. I don't know," adding, "I was fortunate to get myself to be here and thanks to (the organisers for) allowing me to be part of this event."

She gained entry to the tournament on a wild card, having slipped down as far as 145 in the WTA Rankings. Entering the tournament last year, she was the 30th seed and went on a creditable run to the fourth round, beating the defending champion Caroline Wozniacki on the way.

Since her last-16 exit 12 months ago, the story has been pitiful. Only three match wins have followed and, as the bulk of her current ranking points come from last year's run in Melbourne, she will fall out of the world's top 350. That is the territory of ITF and Challenger Series players, not five-time Grand Slam winners who have spent 21 weeks as World No.1.

Since she made her highly controversial comeback in 2017 following a violation of anti-doping rules, has it ever felt as though Sharapova was truly back? Though she performed creditably for the rest of the year, winning the last of her 36 titles at Tianjin later that year, there have been few signs that the old Maria had returned. She can look back with pride at beating second seed Simona Halep in the first round of the US Open in her first Grand Slam back and the excellent win over Wozniacki a year ago, but the aura that surrounded her had gone.

Players who had previously feared her lined up in their droves to condemn her actions and were desperate for a chance to play her. Within weeks, Eugenie Bouchard had publicly called her "a cheater", then played her off the court in Madrid, revealing afterwards that she had received plenty of support from the locker room, even from players with whom she had never been friendly.

"I was actually quite inspired before the match because I had a lot of players coming up to me privately wishing me good luck," she revealed. "Players I don't normally speak to, getting a lot of texts from people in the tennis world that were just rooting for me. It showed me that most people have my opinion."

While many will point out that Sharapova had never been hugely popular amongst her peers, the Bouchard episode showed that she had lost their respect, which had previously been absolute. Roland Garros refused to grant her a wildcard that year, with the French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli saying: "You can get a wild card when you return from injury but you cannot get a wild card when returning from a doping suspension."

For his part, Eurosport pundit Mats Wilander believes that Sharapova still has something to offer the game, citing the example of Venus Williams, who reached two Grand Slam finals in 2017, long after her peak years had passed.

"I’d like to go back to Venus Williams when she made the Australian Open and Wimbledon final as a 36-year-old in 2017," he said on Eurosport 1's Game, Schett and Mats. "Venus had a time for a few years in between when she shouldn’t be playing tennis. Of course she was struck down with a virus so maybe that held her back. But I think that you’ve got to give somebody like Sharapova a little bit more time. She’s coming back still. She’s got the fire, it looks like."

While competitive instincts will always be hard to ignore, it should not be forgotten that prior to the sensational press conference in which it was announced that she had tested positive for a banned substance, it had been rumoured that she would announce her retirement as, even before the doping ban, her level had fallen away and the injuries had begun to mount.

If Sharapova elects to continue plugging away on the tour with her new ranking, what sort of future awaits her? The US Open and Australian Open have been forthcoming with wildcards since her comeback but should a five-time Grand Slam winner, even with her numerous injury problems, be going to tournaments cap-in-hand to ask to play in the main draw? And if she goes through qualifying for WTA tour events, every lapse will be scrutinised and used as proof that her prime is an ever-more distant memory. Either way, ignominy awaits.

She has mostly been trading on reputation for three years. The longer this fall from grace continues, the less that already-diminished reputation will mean.