An open and entertaining match minded its manners.
Federer said he did not detect any sign of nerves in Murray, either before or during the match, and was quick to add (as a counterpoint to his pre-match mind games): "He's a great player".
Spurs won 5-1 after Danny Blanchflower made a rousing address but Nicholson's submissive pre-match mind-set sums up how one player can affect the mood.
Other animals cannot match human minds, which minds, indeed, have made human beings the de facto lords of Creation.
We value a match between mind and world, and knowing is the most general attitude in which mind must match world, which explains why we value knowing.
They're still some way off AFC Wimbledon's match total, mind, having only played 11 league fixtures since then.
I'd be surprised if South Africa lost another wicket all match, never mind 10 by tea tomorrow.
As if to prove the point, Arsène Wenger picked a team with a good deal more than this match in mind.
"If €500,000 is bet on a three-goal difference, and it is 1-1 five minutes before the end, and the game ends 4-1, then something is going on," he said, without revealing whether he had a particular match in mind.
The Manor House, Uphill-into-the-Wind Inextricably linked as it is with the old British empire, the sun never seems to set on an international cricket match, never mind cricket of any sort.
Self-imposed pressure is what it is but the others, from the Maleevas to the McEnroes, played nowhere near a Grand Slam final in their home country, a milestone occasion created with this very match in mind.
