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They call it the toughest job in tennis. No, it’s not coaching Emma Raducanu or interviewing Corentin Moutet on live television. Since they stopped making rackets out of trees, only three women have done the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double in the same summer. You’re talking Martina Navratilova. You’re talking Steffi Graf. You’re talking Serena Williams. That’s one hell of a blunt rotation.

And so for Mirra Andreeva there is a breathtaking brutality to her task over the next fortnight: simply emulate the greatest women ever to do it. We think we know how it ends. The way it usually ends: in sprawling, exhausted defeat. Garbiñe Muguruza crashing out to Jana Cepelova in 2016 (round two). Ash Barty getting shocked by Alison Riske in 2019 (round four). A tearful Coco Gauff being outplayed by Dayana Yastremska 12 months ago (round one).

You don’t just go and win Wimbledon right after winning the French. Everyone knows that. Especially when you’re still 19 years of age, still raw and emotionally dysregulated at times, still honing your weapons. You have to bide your time, learn your craft, find your feet. Yes, we think we know how it ends. But also, Andreeva has shown us enough on her startling rise through the game to suggest she might be made a little different. It doesn’t guarantee anything right now. But it’s worth keeping an eye on her.

She will know, of course, that in beating the veteran world No 59 Magda Linette of Poland 7-5, 6-4 in her first round match on Monday evening she has still barely cleared base camp. But this was exactly the sort of test she would have wanted at this stage, a match that provided just enough jeopardy, just enough adversity, just enough problems for her to solve.

The June hop across the English Channel is the most violent and disorienting transition in the sport, and for reasons that go well beyond horticulture and footwork. There is the three-week turnaround (formerly two) from the French to Wimbledon, the bracing adjustment from the gruelling clay-court swing to virtually everybody’s least familiar surface. For the Roland Garros champion there is also the triple threat of adrenaline surge, delayed fatigue and increased expectation and media attention. Small wonder that after three unsuccessful attempts from 2022 to 2024, Iga Swiatek sensibly discarded her French Open title last year and was richly rewarded with her maiden Wimbledon triumph.

After all, grass is not just a different surface but a different rhythm, a different temper, almost an entirely different mindset. If clay rewards patience, grass often rewards impatience: the ability to spot the kill early, force the issue, create your own wave of momentum. In beating Maja Chwalinska to win at Roland Garros, Andreeva showed her staying power, her capacity to hang in there, a willingness to extend the rallies in tough conditions. Which is a really great way of winning Roland Garros. But what happens when the surface demands an ability not to prolong the point but to shut it down?

It wasn’t always pretty. The low, lush day-one bounce caught her out a few times. At one point she slid painfully on her right ankle. For her part Linette played a fine match, cannily mixing her up her spin and pace, climbing into the Andreeva second serve, coming to the net judiciously and often.

But while the errors piled up, Andreeva could always call on her big first serve to bail her out of trouble, her superior anticipation to win control of the point, her crushing groundstrokes to finish them off. There was a real aggression and intent there, a clear modification of strategy, an awareness that the game which wins in Paris is not necessarily the game that wins in London.

Afterwards, as she often does, she spoke with an unfiltered honesty about the doubts that had plagued her in the three weeks since the greatest win of her life. “Of course the feeling [of winning a grand slam] is unbelievable,” she said. “But on the other side, you expect more from yourself, feel more pressure. People expect you to do well. Next time I will try to block out those thoughts, because I was thinking about that a little bit. But a win is a win, even though I was complaining a lot.”

And there are times when Andreeva’s biggest opponent appears to be herself. While she has curbed some of her more melodramatic excesses on court, occasionally the switch still flips. She grumbles and yowls. The consistency is not quite there yet, and nor is the footwork. As a Russian, she will not enjoy the adoration of the Wimbledon crowd. Her second round game against Barbora Krejcikova – another victim of the Roland Garros curse – is as tough as they come.

We can carry on listing the reasons why she won’t do it. But we could also look at it this way: she is a player who has solved every conundrum that has come her way in a staggeringly short career. Nobody looks out of her league right now. And for all the history weighing on her, you might also point out that for all her flaws and foibles, she’s only six wins away from true greatness.