It was death by a thousand cuts or, to put it another way, victory by a thousand errors.
If it was inspiration you were looking for, Tokyo's Ariake Colosseum was not the place to be on Sunday morning as Julie Halard-Decugis backed over Amy Frazier 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 to win the Japan Open women's singles title in a mind-numbing 2 hours and 30 minutes of tennis.
In contrast, the men's final later Sunday provided a sparkling example of inspired tennis as Dutchman Sjeng Schalken outdueled the hunk from Ecuador, Nicolas Lapentti, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.