"I've said this before: I want to be the greatest. My dad told me that I could do this when I was 8. Obviously you never believe it. I'm still, like, not 100 percent confident. But, like, you have to just say things. You never know what happens," she said. "If I went into this match saying, 'Let's see how many games I can get against her,' then I most definitely would not have won. My goal was to play my best. My dream was to win. That's what happened."

How far does she think she can fare this fortnight? "My goal," she said, her face expressionless, "is to win it."

Well, then ...

Gauff came into the week outside the top 300 but was granted a wild card by the All England Club to enter qualifying. She rolled through those rounds at a nearby site, knocking off the event's top seed.

But this was a whole other task.