Maria Sharapova tugged on her visor and trudged off Rod Laver Arena suffering her first AO opening-exit in a decade.
Donna Vekic reeled off five straight games sweeping Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 in a loss that left the Russian wild card facing a flurry of questions about her future.
Cash: Wimbledon Mixed May Have Been Serena's Downfall
Was this first-round loss Sharapova's last Australian Open match?
"I don't know. I don't know," Sharapova told the media after her 81-minute defeat. "I was fortunate to get myself to be here and thankfully to [tournament director] Craig [Tiley] and the team allowing me to be part of this event.
"It's tough for me to tell what's going to happen in 12 months' time."
The 32-year-old Sharapova, who has not won a Grand Slam match since defeating defending-champion Caroline Wozniacki 368 days ago in Melbourne, is spiraling into ranking oblivion.
Sharapova's third straight major loss will see her ranking plummet to a projected No. 366, which means she'll need wild cards to gain main-draw entries or drop down to Challenger-level events. Sharapova said she's not sure when or where she will play again, but knows there's only one way out of this hole.
"It's tough to say I'm on the right track right now 45 minutes after the match," Sharapova said. "But, I mean, there is no way to get out of it except to keep believing in yourself, because if you do do all the right things and you don't believe in yourself, then that's probably a bad formula."
The 2008 champion, who served a 15-month doping suspension after testing positive for the banned substance meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open, has said her surgically-repaired serving shoulder will likely never be fully fit and admits she's unsure if it will jeopardize this season.
"I get asked about my shoulder, I think, in every interview that I do and the bottom line is I have a damaged shoulder that I've had and operated on, so it's not something that I'm going to wake up and be, like, I feel perfect," Sharapova said. "But a lot of it is managing the pain and doing all the right things and taking care of the rest of the body so that it helps the shoulder."
The five-time Grand Slam champion spent the offseason training in Italy with coach Riccardo Piatti, who has tried to streamline her service motion to alleviate some stress on her shoulder. Sharapova said she will continue working with Piatti, but isn't sure if her body will permit her to play an extensive schedule this season after injuries limited her to just 15 matches last season.
"I would like to," Sharapova said. "I don't know. You know, I don't have a crystal ball to tell you if I can or if I will, but I would love to, yeah."
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve