“Look, Coco played her peer tonight; it’s a lot more pressure when you play kids your own age than when you play someone 10, 15 years older,” said Chris Evert, an 18-time Grand Slam singles champion who was once a teenage phenom herself.

Gauff made three double faults in her opening service game and quickly fell behind by 3-0, appearing tight and failing to penetrate with her groundstrokes. Potapova, who has considerable power off both wings, was repeatedly able to surprise Gauff and force her to play defense on the stretch.

Gauff was more reactive than proactive for much of the first set, which she finished with 16 unforced errors and just three winners.

But after losing her opening service game in the second set, Gauff began to find her range and rhythm and also made the sage decision to stop feeding Potapova with consistently big pace.

“I thought Coco fought better than she played obviously,” said Corey Gauff, her father and longtime coach. “I’m hoping she learned that you just have to try to troubleshoot and fight your way through it. She realized the girl really liked a lot of pace and flat shots, and so Coco started lifting the ball up and changing the spins of the ball.”

Like Gauff, Potapova was once the world’s top-ranked junior. Like Gauff, she won a junior Grand Slam singles title — Wimbledon in 2016 — and has had access to elite training and expertise from an early age.