Like other WTA youngsters, Andreescu is getting the precious opportunity to make a name for herself by playing against Williams, the greatest player of this era.

Beating Williams has an amplifying effect beyond compare in the women’s game, and though Williams is above all interested in winning more titles herself as she soldiers on at age 37, her enduring presence and relevance are also boons to her sport.

Nothing helps a new arrival become a superstar the way defeating a superstar in a Grand Slam final does.

Think back to Steffi Graf, who arrived and toppled Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. Think back to Monica Seles, who arrived and soon defeated Graf. Think back to Williams herself, who arrived in her sister Venus’s shadow and then seized the spotlight by upsetting Martina Hingis in 1999 to win her first Grand Slam singles title at the U.S. Open at age 17.

“It goes full circle,” Evert said Sunday. “I was a teenager who had no pressure and beat the top players like Billie Jean King and Margaret Court when they were at the end of their careers. Steffi beat me at the end of mine. What goes around comes around. Serena is learning that now, but you have to and should play both roles if you want longevity.”

Was Andreescu intimidated by the Williams aura on Saturday?

“Of course,” she said after a pause. “I just prepared myself the best way I could, like I do every match. But having that opportunity to play against her and then actually winning the match is just so crazy.”