The 28th seed’s 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-4 victory came on the back of 29 winners – 16 of those off the backhand – for her third in five meetings against the American.

“Well, I don't have any words now. I'm extremely happy and the fight that we could show both of us,” Potapova said. “I mean, Coco is such a champion. I respect her so much, and yeah, I'm unbelievably proud of myself as well that I stayed there, that I've been fighting for the last point, and here I am.”

For Gauff, there was a cruel sense of déjà vu, reminiscent of three-set defeats to Elina Svitoilna in the Rome final and in the fourth round to Linda Noskova in Madrid in the lead-up.

“I think I feel like I lost the same way in Rome as I did here, which is not good,” she said. “I don't know. You never want to lose the same way back-to-back times, and I did, and I feel like also in Madrid, it was a similar thing, losing the same way.

“It's one thing to lose, but I think today I didn't – I mean, I competed, like, I fought my hardest, but I don't think I played the way I wanted to in the crucial moments.”

It marked the second time she had stumbled before the quarterfinals in a Grand Slam title defence but this time wasn’t as tough a pill to swallow as first time round.

She admitted being defending champion at the US Open in 2024, a run which ended to Emma Navarro in the fourth round, affected her play more.

“I think at US Open it did a lot more, but honestly, this time it didn't,” she said. “I wasn't really nervous. I was nervous in my first round, but after that, I wasn't really nervous going into today, and I wasn't really thinking about it.”

Potapova threatened to blow apart the opening set when she held points for a double break at 4-2 only for Gauff to hang on after a seven-minute struggle on serve.

Four straight games gave the American the opening set after 45 minutes, but it was not the freight train of momentum it could have become as Potapova immediately seized back the initiative with a double break in the second set.

Consolidation again proved elusive and in another protracted battle, Gauff pegged back one of the breaks in a 10-minute game to land her name on the board.

It was the epitome of the 22-year-old’s greatest attributes – the fighting quality that carried her to last year’s title over Aryna Sabalenka – her ability to scrap it out when the chips are down.

Increasingly demonstrative towards her camp after she again let an early lead slip from her grasp, Potapova was ready to stay the course as long as required.

While uncharacteristically erratic throughout the tiebreak, with the finish line within reach, Gauff wiped the slate clean and regained the ascendancy for a 3-1 lead in the deciding set.

It was her last hurrah. Potapova reeled off five of the last six games, breaking Gauff a seventh time to set a clash against 22nd seed Anna Kalinskaya for a place in her maiden Roland-Garros quarterfinal.

“I think I've had a few [top wins] before as well, but for sure it's up there. I would put it in the top three for sure,” Potapova said. “That's one of the best stadiums that I ever got to play. The atmosphere is insane.”