She's the last local standing at Melbourne Park and now Daria Gavrilova has the chance to formalise her status as Australia's new tennis queen.
Gavrilova enters her Australian Open fourth-round showdown with Karolina Pliskova on Monday not only chasing a maiden grand slam quarter-final berth but also tantalisingly close to ending Samantha Stosur's long reign atop the national rankings.
Stosur, a one-time US Open champion and world No.4, has enjoyed an unbroken stint as Australia's top-ranked women's player since displacing Casey Dellacqua way back in October 2008.
But now Gavrilova is just two wins away from breaking the Queenslander's remarkable eight-year tenure following another emotion-charged run to the last 16 of her home-town major.
The 22-year-old Melburnian overcome a mid-match wobble to upset Swiss 12th seed Timea Bacsinszky 6-3 5-7 6-4 in a third-round centre-court thriller on Saturday night.
Gavrilova admitted her dropping of the second set evoked memories of her mental capitulation from 6-0 2-0 up against Carla Suarez Navarro in the fourth round last year.
"Well, I went to the bathroom. I think I was losing my cool a little bit in the second set," Gavrilova said.
"I told myself 'just try and be composed, don't do what you did last year'. I told myself to be really focused and play a tough point every point.
"I said 'okay, just give it (your) all for the next 30 minutes' or however long it had to take."
Standing in Gavrilova's path now is the formidable US Open finalist Pliskova, who has trounced Australia's former world junior champion in straight sets in both their previous meetings.
"She's playing unbelievable," Gavrilova said.
"She's definitely playing her best tennis right now. I actually told to a reporter, before the draw came out: 'If it wasn't me, who do you think is going to win the tournament? I picked her'.
"Yeah, I do respect her a lot. I do absolutely have to play my best to beat her."
If she does, Gavrilova will be playing either American grand slam debutant Jennifer Brady or veteran Croat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni - both unseeded on Wednesday with a huge opportunity to confirm herself as Australia's new No.1.
