WE HAVE been here before, of course, but there is something different about Anna Fitzpatrick, something that makes you think she might break the mould.
It was not just the way the unseeded Sheffield teenager played in losing her semi-final of the girls' singles in two close sets, commendable though that was.
Determined to take the initiative whenever possible against a strong and much more experienced Eastern European opponent, whose game was based on forcing errors rather than hitting outright winners, Fitzpatrick overcame early nerves to fight back from 4-2 down in the first set to lead 6-5 before losing the tie-break.
Though Fitzpatrick began to visibly tire - she had to play twice on Friday and was nursing a shoulder injury for which she received lengthy treatment between sets - she continued to play aggressive, forcing tennis throughout the second set before eventually succumbing 6-3 to Poland's Urszula Radwanska, defeated as much by her growing error count as the accuracy and depth of Radwanska's shot-making. Naive it might have been at times, but it was stirring too, and there was touch as well of remarkable power for one still relatively slight.
Her potential, according to her coach David Sammel of the Monte Carlo Tennis Academy, is huge, and it looked it throughout the match.
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Talking afterwards, Fitzpatrick was as open and confident as she had been on court. How did it feel, she was asked with depressing inevitability, to be the last British survivor in singles of any sort?
"It doesn't really bother me, to be honest. I'm an individual, whichever country I'm from. It's all personal," was her admirably down-to-earth response. Her ambition is simple, to be a Grand Slam champion, and she is going about achieving it by travelling and playing matches.
Her mixed nationality training group, formed by Sammel with the financial support of the Australian entrepreneur Vin Hillsdon after the closure of the LTA Academy based in Leeds, is based on Sammel's belief that this is by far the best way to produce "top 100" players.
The huge step forward taken by Fitzpatrick in this, her last tournament as a junior, would appear to be a vindication of that approach.
"A lot of English players seem to believe that players of other nationalities start with a mental edge, that they are somehow tougher," said Sammel. "We have English, Serbs, a young Finn, and Anna has seen that everybody's basically the same.
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"We have a 'No Moods Allowed' rule which helps them nurture the right attitude. One of the keys with Anna has been her learning to play the court, not the name on the other side of the net.
"As a result she's starting to develop her game style, and though there's still not very much of her, all the physical work she's been doing has allowed her to hit a heavier ball. Pound for pound, she's become one of the strongest on the tour, and hopefully she will continue to benefit from that as she fills out."
The aim, said Sammel, is that Fitzpatrick should at least halve her ranking every year. "She began this year at about 700, after this tournament she'll be about 400, and by the end of the year - if all goes well - she should be nearer 300," he said. "This has been a massive step forward for her, because it's one thing to know you are good and something else to deliver.
"We knew her game could do damage on grass, but the most pleasing thing was the consistent level of her fight. The best juniors tend to become the best seniors, and she's shown she has the pedigree to go far in the main tournament."
Fitzpatrick, who returned to court later to win her second-round girls' doubles match alongside Jade Curtis, has a tough schedule ahead, including tournaments in Canada, Russia and the US, which will keep the 18-year-old away from home for the next few weeks at least.
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It can be a strange existence, she admits, focusing solely on tennis. "It's been weird hearing that really near my house is completely flooded, that people have been injured and a boy died," she said. "But it doesn't involve me."
Is making the British team for next year's Federation Cup a realistic target? "I don't see why not, if I keep developing my game, putting my game on court. I'm sure I'll be up for selection.
"I'm disappointed about losing today, obviously, but overall I've been pleased with my performance in every match. I wouldn't say I exceeded my expectations, because I didn't come into the tournament thinking that way. I just came in with the plan to put my game style on the court. I knew it could hurt a lot of players "It's been a good tournament, and I can take a lot of confidence from it."