If he had been sitting in his living room watching on television, Thomas Muster would surely have been cheering for his Austrian compatriot Andreas Haider-Maurer in Tuesday's match at the ATP Tour event in Vienna.
But Muster, 43, was not doing that, he was on the other side of the net trying to prove that a mid-40s guy can still play a passable game of tennis.
Was he successful? You would have to say yes because he was only beaten 6-2, 7-6(5) by Haider-Maurer, ranked No. 157. That happens to be one spot higher than Canada's current top-ranked player, Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont.
The first set was one-way traffic for the 23-year-old Haider-Maurer, who had not played a Grand Slam event until this year - only getting out of the qualifying at the U.S. Open where he took No. 5 seed Robin Soderling to 6-4 in the fifth set in the first round.
In the second set against Muster, Haider-Maurer appeared to get a little over-confident. As a few errors crept into his game, Muster's level when up a notch and the match became competitive. But still, Haider-Maurer had three break points at love-40 on Muster's serve at 2-2 in the second set. If he had won any of them, it could have easily been almost as one-sided a second set as the first.
Muster hung in and, though he looked a little slow at times, some of the cockiness of the man who won the 1995 French Open and reached No. 1 in the rankings in February, 1996, returned.
He tapped his finger on his head to acknowledge that he had successfully called for a Hawk-Eye challenge of Haider-Maurer forehand that was just wide, and he pumped his arms in elation after his combination of a drop shot and a lob volley completely outfoxed Haider-Maurer to win a point much to the delight of the crowd.
Muster was his most inspired when he faced match point at 4-6 in the second-set tiebreak. After a short rally, he blasted an inside-out forehand that landed smack on the sideline for a winner.
But a point later he pushed a forehand wide and the match was over - his first on the ATP Tour since losing in the first round of the 1999 French Open.
Muster married an Australian television hostess, had a son, put on close to 50 pounds, got divorced and, latterly, has married again and had a daughter, found fitness and his way back to tennis.
He is 1-6 at Challenger events in 2010 and should not have any illusions he can once again be competitive in today's tennis. Only twice did he get two points on Haider-Maurer's serve, never threatening to break the serve of his journeyman opponent.
But the crowd at the Wiener Stadthalle really got into it, and Muster was the one who stepped out to receive the loud applause after the match.
In a subsequent German language interview, Muster mentioned something about "a middle-age crisis" and laughed.
It sounds like he is not taking the comeback too seriously, and neither should anybody else.