Talia Gibson is becoming one of the stories of the Sunshine Double

Iva Jovic, an 18-year old from Los Angeles and No. 18 seed at the Miami Open, is one of the freshest and most heralded of faces on the WTA Tour. On Sunday afternoon, she squared up with Talia Gibson, a 21-year old Australian whose face doesn’t even appear on her player page on the WTA website, and whose hometown is left blank. For now, let’s just pencil in Blue Gum Park Tennis Club in Perth, Australia, the place where Gibson picked up the game.

And what a game it is turning out to be. Gibson has been the sensation of the Sunshine Double tournaments. She added to her burgeoning reputation Sunday when she ruthlessly crushed Jovic, 6-2, 6-2 in just 1:13, clouting savage backhand returns and explosive, pinpoint serves (she put 62% of her first serves into play, and won a surreal 81% of Jovic’s second-serve points).

Given that Jovic was a solid favorite going into the third-round tussle, this result was enough to drive you into the arms of that cliche, “That’s why they play the game.”

At Indian Wells, Gibson became the youngest woman to reach the quarterfinal at a 1000 WTA event in seven years. She shares the honor with the woman she will play in the fourth round, Elena Rybakina. The No. 3 seed earned her place on Sunday as well, with a neat 6-3, 6-4 win over Marta Kostyuk.

The upcoming clash will give Gibson the perfect platform for demonstrating what her win over Jovic hinted at: that her game is big enough, bold enough and powerful enough to represent a viable threat to the recent ascendancy of Aryna Sabalenka and Rybakina.

Gibson qualifies as a late bloomer in today’s game. She started at the age of five, at the aforementioned Blue Gum club. She went all-in on tennis, but did not indulge in hero worship.

“I wouldn’t say I had one in particular that I was obsessed with watching,” she told WTA media. “I think just generally growing up and being able to watch professional tennis on TV was such a cool thing—especially seeing the amazing Australians.”

Gibson’s win was her fifth over a Top 20 player in just two weeks, the previous one an eye-opening  demolition on Saturday of No. 15 Naomi Osaka. The salient detail is that the resurgent Osaka played well, but was unable to convert any of the four break points she earned (just a day later, Jovic would have none). It was a sobering experience for Osaka, whose serve and power off the ground are proven weapons.

“Sobering” is a good word to apply to Gibson’s run in more ways than one. Australia may no longer hold sway over the game, but Australian champions—and even Aussie regulars—have been role models for successive generations. Like many of them, Gibson is low-key, seemingly unflappable. She shows little if any emotion: any “come ons!” a viewer heard on Sunday would have drifted over from another court.

Between points, Gibson moves slowly, almost laconically, with an erect back and a placid expression on her face—a visage well-hidden in the shade of a visor. She’s all business, but that aura of calm evaporates quickly as she goes into a low crouch to return (“attack” might be the better word) serve, a predator eager to pounce. Like some of her Aussie forbears, she is steely, giving nothing away when it comes to body language or emotions. She only turned to her box with a raised fist twice, and then it was more-or-less half-hearted, like an inside joke.

Gibson explained her demeanor perfectly after she upset No. 7 Jasmine Paolini at Indian Wells, telling reporters that she felt “extremely calm” throughout the match, and thus able to “freely swing.” That combination makes its own gravy, sending alarm bells ringing in the head of a rival. Any player might experience that state on a given day, the trick is to sustain it over an extended period, as Gibson has been doing for weeks now.

READ: Gibson just got her fifth Top 20 win in the last three weeks with victory over Jovic in Miami

At the start of the year, Gibson had just two WTA main-draw wins on her CV. But after a 1-4 start through the Australian Open, she found her game in a series of modest WTA 75 and WTA 100 events, winning 10 of 12 matches going into Indian Wells. The experience gave her an enormous boost, and all the pieces began to fall into place. After wins over No. 11 Ekaterina Alexandrova, No. 17 Clara Tauson, and Paolini, Gibson told the WTA media team:

“I think every match I have just given myself more confidence in being able to go out there and, you know, have that extra belief that I can do this. And here we are.”

Gibson’s performance against Jovic was a stunning demonstration of power tennis. At 5-foot-9, she is listed as just an inch taller than Jovic. But the difference might have been a foot, the way Gibson was able to overwhelm her younger opponent, with stinging serves and even more destructive returns. Gibson broke Jovic in the first game, and the rising American star never found her footing. As Gibson built a 5-2 lead, Tennis Channel commentator Vicky Duval remarked, “Gibson is a train that cannot be stopped for the moment.”

Jovic took a toilet break at the end of the first set, no doubt hoping to reset. Gibson did not bother to leave the court. She sat calmly, with great posture, fiddling with her water bottles and her visor, tucking away strands of stray hair while sampling some of the various liquids on the chair next to her.

Jovic returned, to serve first in set two. Gibson returned the first ball with a sharply-angled cross-court backhand that Jovic, stretched far, barely got strings on as Gibson thundered toward the net to end the point with a putaway. Gibson’s shots are a little like those of Jessica Pegula: her timing is so exquisite that the ball appears to travel faster than it should, given the speed of the swing. But unlike Pegula, Gibson plays with what Duval called, “relentless aggression.”

The more I watch Gibson, the more I think she has Top 10 potential. Vicky Duval on Talia Gibson

It’s fair to wonder if some time next week, or in the coming weeks, Gibson’s magic wand becomes just another tennis racquet. Many players have enjoyed hot streaks, only to see them fade like a sugar rush. Only time will tell where Gibson’s base level will wind up, but you don’t rise in the rankings from No. 118 in January to No. 68—and soon higher, depending on the outcome in Miami—in fewer than three months.

Before the end of the broadcast, Duval said, “The more I watch Gibson, the more I think she has Top 10 potential.”

If anything, Duval’s guess may prove too conservative.