Like better-known Canberran Nick Kyrgios, Annerly Poulos has Greek heritage, an aggressive style of play and she treads the fine line between on-court passion and anger.
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They also share the same coach in Todd Larkham, who is wary of rubbing out the "mongrel" in the 11-year-old's game - something that has been a hallmark of Kyrgios' rapid rise.
Poulos won the under-12 national title last month, the first ACT player to do so since Kyrgios in the under-16s.
Larkham is experiencing Groundhog Day teaching the benefits of on-court composure to Poulos, which he is still working through with world No. 52 Kyrgios.
The 19-year-old copped three code violations during a US Open clash with Mikhail Youzhny in August, but has also used that fire to rocket up the rankings.
"It's a fine line, I would never want either of them to lose that fire," Larkham said.
"You want that; we don't have enough of that in Australian kids, that mongrel and unbelievable competitiveness where you fight to the death to win.
"Annerly's pretty fiery on the court, so I'm repeating what I did with Nick.
"It's challenging, but I think there's a pattern there with a lot of the good players. They're such good competitors and so desperate not to lose, that they play with a lot of passion and emotion.
"You've just got to manage it so it doesn't become too over the top and affect their ability to play good tennis."
Poulos is doing just that, having rallied from a set down to beat Natasha Russell in the national final.
She possesses the same aggressive ground strokes as Kyrgios and shares a similar distaste for losing.
"That [composure] is probably the main thing I was focussing on last year," Poulos said.
"Since then it's got a lot better and I've been more successful with my tennis.
"If I didn't fix my emotions on the court, during nationals I wouldn't have won the second set and came back. It was good I changed at an early age."
Poulos first picked up a racquet aged three after her Greek-Samoan father Anthony and Samoan mother Vanda noted her natural talent.
Given they share the same coach Poulos often trains alongside Kyrgios, who began training at Canberra's new multimillion-dollar tennis centre last month.
She has taken the opportunity to study his high standards and expectations of himself.
"I don't train with him, but Todd usually has a hit with him and I'm on the other court hitting with someone else," she said.
"I'm quite similar to Nick, I'm an attacker but can also rally and wait for an opportunity to take my shot.
"It's good having him around training, I guess I can learn a lot from him and hopefully follow in his footsteps."
Larkham's job is to ensure they harness that aggression the right way.
"When Annerly loses she's very upset and it's a good thing for a young kid," he said.
"You want them to really care, and it's got to really hurt when you lose so when you get back on the training court you want to do better.
"Nick never took a back step as a junior, and Annerly also has the ability and weapons to be the aggressive player."
