Tell any 20-year-old their first tour silverware will be a Grand Slam title, and they will take it in a heartbeat.
Such a momentous breakthrough completely void of any expectation changed everything for Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko last June when she thumped her way to the Roland Garros title.
Trouble is, achieving such overnight success at a young age is the scant time to prepare for such a huge transformation.
As the youngest player in the top 10, from a nation where fame has come in the space of one glorious fortnight, Ostapenko is learning fast she no longer has the luxury of slipping under the radar.
And as she discovered on Wednesday against fellow big-hitter Ying-Ying Duan, sometimes you’ve just got to tough it out.
It’s something that seems to come naturally to this feisty competitor, as her 6-3 3-6 6-4 second-round Australian Open result will attest.
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“I mean of course, it’s a little more confidence,” she said of joining the Grand Slam winners’ circle.
“On the other side, like, everybody wants to beat you now and everybody is preparing so well to play against you. It’s a little bit tougher this year, but I’m still really happy with my performance.”
Victory over the 100th-ranked Chinese player pits her into an all-Baltic third-round showdown with No.32 seed Anett Kontaveit.
Ostapenko looked every bit the woman ready to bear the weight of expectation when she took down Francesca Schiavone in the battle of Roland Garros champions for the loss of five games in the opening round.
And despite dropping her opening serve against Duan on Wednesday, her all-or-nothing blows began to find their mark once more as she broke to love with a searing backhand down the line.
The winners were flying sweet and centre from Ostapenko’s strings as she brought up two set points with a monster forehand cross-court. She sealed it 6-3 with her third ace.
A beefed-up serve is the next step in the Ostapenko evolution, and to help her achieve this, an Australian connection joined the fray in December. David Taylor, who coached Sam Stosur to her 2011 US Open title, looked impressed with what his charge produced when it came to the crunch.
“Yeah, it’s great. He’s a great coach, he’s very experienced,” Ostapenko said of Taylor. “I think we’re doing well.”
Duan, meanwhile had lost all 10 previous encounters with top-10 opponents, but on Wednesday, after matching the Latvian’s power from the baseline to pocket the second set, she looked to have stolen momentum when she surged back to draw level.
“It was really tough for me because she was hitting the ball also very hard,” Ostapenko said. “I mean, it was unbelievable tennis from her, and I’m really happy I could win the match.
“I was even 4-1 up in the third set and then I was down three games in a row and I was still fighting, and I’m really happy that I [fought] to the last point and won the match.”
With a frown of intent painted across her forehand, the Latvian cracked three huge returns to finish in a flurry, and then sealed the result when Duan pushed wide.
It’s a frown almost warning her challengers: if you want to beat one of the newest Grand Slam champions, this one is well up for the fight.