It was February last year and Emma Raducanu was sitting, in glorious anonymity, in the cafe of a suburban indoor tennis centre in Sunderland.
Happy to make conversation, the socially accomplished teenager talked of her A-levels, and joined in as the four of us round the table discussed the worrying developments around a new virus that was arriving in Europe.
On the court she went on to make the final of a modest £16,000 tournament, another decent week suggesting early promise. And that — until last month — was that as far her playing world-ranking tournaments was concerned.