A third of Stosur's 15 Melbourne Park campaigns have now ended in the first round; this one when Australia's senior women's seed, the No.18, was toppled by the 81st-ranked Watson 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 in what was Stosur's first match in more than a decade outside Rod Laver Arena, where it has all ended so painfully many times before.

"It's just disappointing," she said. "I mean, you get a bit sick of this feeling. It's one of those things. You're disappointed, you're upset, angry, 'what could I have done?' But, I mean, at the end of the day I feel like I've done everything I can to try and prepare as best as I can. I gave it my best shot, and it didn't happen again.

"So you can kind of blow things out of proportion and think that everything's a disaster or you can kind of look at it maybe a little bit more logically and think, 'OK, what do I have to do to keep getting better? That's what I have to do. I just have to get a little bit better each time. I think once I can get through a match with a win, then that's going to turn things around. Yeah, that's what I have to do."

The positive for Stosur was her recovery to force a third set that was not really dusted until the more consistent, steadier Watson earned the double-break in a marathon 16-minute fourth game. The initial break in the decider had come via a fabulous running forehand pass from Watson at break point in the second game. Stosur had played a good point, and a fine volley, but the Briton's response was better. From there, Stosur could not find a way back in.

Unforced errors were the killer: 47 to 23. The winners tally, 35 to 21, was not enough to compensate and, as ever, it was not just how many but when.

Stosur had never lost to Watson in two previous meetings, but nor had the pair played in Australia before. If right shoulder strapping hinted that perhaps all was not 100 per cent physically for the Queenslander; mentally and emotionally she has rarely been at her best at home.

Asked whether her long-time Australian Open tribulations or her winless record this Aussie summer had been more relevant, she said: "None. I mean, I know what the history has been leading into this year. I know what it was last year. I know that you can change things quickly. But I wasn't thinking about last year's loss or the loss last week going into this match. I was thinking about it for what it was, and tried to really focus on that."

At 32, Stosur's best result from 15 Australian Opens thus remains a pair of round-of-16 appearances from 2006 (when Martina Hingis was still a singles player) and 2011 (when Serena Williams was still, well, Serena). Before, in between and, mostly, afterwards - indeed, most notably since her 2011 crowning as US Open champion - pickings have been slim indeed. Losses have come against Sorana Cirstea, Jie Zheng, Ana Ivanovic, Coco Vandeweghe and, last year, world No.114 Kristyna Pliskova, the two most recent before this one coming in straight sets.

So another singles summer ends without a victory, anywhere, for Stosur who lost to Garbine Muguruza in Brisbane and in Sydney to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. But reassurance, typically, comes with the arrival of the claycourt season in April, where the climax for Stosur was another run to the French Open fourth round. A friendlier surface, and easier venues, are still to come.

"I mean, I've done it before. I've done it many times before," she said. "That's kind of the outlook I have to take. I mean, that's certainly one that's going to make me feel better rather than going home and sulking for the next six months. I still feel like I've got good tennis in me. I don't feel like it was all bad today or it was a big disaster. I know there's obviously things I need to improve. I need to do it quickly, work out a few things. I do feel like it's still possible for me."

Stosur knows she can tinker with things with current coach Josh Eagle, make smarter decisions, execute better. "Even last week, if I win that match in Brisbane, things are very different. I'm a couple of points away. But with a loss next to your name, it's a little bit harder to recover from those things. You just got to try to get over the line.Then, yeah, it can be a whole lot better. Confidence is a great thing and a terrible thing."