She was one game away from bamboozling Kerber, too, but after Hsieh took a 6-4, 5-4 lead, Kerber held serve to 5-5 and got the better of a series of grueling, extended exchanges: howling with release as she crouched low to hit a forehand winner down the line to break Hsieh’s serve in the next game, taking command of the set and the momentum.

“I was running everywhere and she always had the answer,” Kerber said on the court after closing out her ninth straight victory (13 if you count the Hopman Cup team event). “We will see a lot in 2018 from her, that’s for sure.”

Asked about Kerber’s comment, Hsieh moved two fingers across her field of vision, à la John Travolta dancing in “Pulp Fiction.”

“I’m coming,” she said with a smile. “So I will keep trying. Thank you.”

Hsieh, who has won 19 doubles titles on the tour, had not reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam singles tournament since the Australian Open in 2008.

She calls her style “Su-wei style” or “freestyle.”

“Like today, I go on the court, and if I don’t have a plan, then I do whatever I can,” she said. “When the ball comes, I decide at the last moment where to hit. So sometimes the girls say, ‘Oh I don’t know where she hit.’ But sometimes I don’t know where I hit, too.”

Garcia, a 24-year-old from France who propelled herself into the top 10 late last season with a series of attack-minded victories in Asia, winning two tournaments in China and reaching the semifinals of the WTA’s year-end championships in Singapore.