On the middle Saturday at the All England Club, Brad Gilbert received that call from Coco Gauff’s agent, Alessandro Barel Di Sant Albano. He suggested a meeting.

“I had only interviewed her once or twice but never really met her, so we sat down and had a chat for about an hour at Wimbledon,” Gilbert said Tuesday from Toronto. “So we talked and, man, she’s very bright. I told her some of the things that I saw potentially that I could do. They said, `We’ll get back to you.’”

The rest, as they say, could be history. The man who coached Andre Agassi to six of his eight Grand Slam singles titles, Andy Roddick to his only major at the 2003 US Open and, briefly, Andy Murray, saw a two-day trial evolve into a weeklong experiment. Both sides have agreed to a two-week extension that includes the WTA 1000 events in Toronto and Cincinnati and, possibly, the US Open.

The making of Coco 2.0: How Gauff's new team is transforming her game

On Wednesday, Gauff dropped another impressive performance, a 6-2, 6-2 win over Katie Boulter in the first round at the Omnium National Bank tournament in Montreal. Gauff broke Boulter’s serve five times in a brisk 73-minute outing.

It was her fifth consecutive victory and sets up a Thursday Round of 16 with Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, who knocked off World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki.

Gilbert’s only concrete plans for the summer were three weeks in New York, working at the US Open as an analyst for ESPN, but along with Pere Riba, he’s helping to coach one of the most tantalizing prospects tennis has seen in years. Gauff, still only 19, reached the fourth round at Wimbledon four years ago.

She was a French Open finalist at 18 and -- with Gilbert in the courtside box at the Mubadala Citi DC Open -- she won the biggest title of her career, defeating Maria Sakkari 6-2, 6-3 in Sunday’s final. Gauff is ranked No.7 among Hologic WTA Tour players.

Gauff won three matches and played with a confidence that, lately, has been elusive. She might be the fastest player on the women’s side and has a terrific backhand. But the root of her struggles is an inconsistent forehand. Her extreme grip and long, looping swing mean her timing has to be perfect.

And when you’re on the run against elite players, there’s rarely a perfect set of conditions to hit a forehand. Because her defense is so reliable, Gauff can tend to play too passively. The top players all hit the ball big, but Gilbert says Gauff has the physical tools to match them.

“Everybody is trying to play the forehand -- I’m not going to sit here and act like it’s some secret,” Gauff said in Washington.

Enter Gilbert, who is making a number of adjustments to her game -- none of them involving the forehand.

“We haven’t changed anything with the forehand,” he said, laughing. “I never even say that word.

“Everybody wants to win. I’ve got to win this, and I’ve got to win that. It beats you up -- especially when everybody asks about the forehand all day long. That starts to consume you. Also, it tears down other shots when all you can do is fixate on one thing. So I tend to not fixate on it at all.”

The biggest technical changes were moving Gauff back about eight feet when returning serve and being more aggressive when she was serving.

“The game is simple: If you can break and you hold [serve] more than your opponent, you win,” Gilbert said. “She made some big changes on the fly last week that I implemented. It’s made a huge difference. She was making a ton of returns.

“I concentrate on the little things. It’s doing things she can control at the moment.”

Just as important, Gilbert and Riba are providing more detailed scouting reports on opponents, designing a specific game plan.

“She’s communicating with me at Pere a lot in the match,” Gilbert said.

It may sound counterintuitive, but by not focusing on the forehand, Gilbert is freeing Gauff’s mind -- not to dwell on the shot that has sometimes broken down in big moments.

“One hundred percent,” Gilbert said. “I got hundreds of texts -- fix the forehand, fix the forehand. You don’t just go switch a grip, because then you have to change the arm position and do a lot of other things. I’m not doing that right now.”

Gilbert hasn’t worked closely with a tour-level player since Kei Nishikori (2011) and Sam Querrey (2012). Still, he said, he’s been actively engaged in the game, coaching at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, and doing clinics and evaluations of young players. He also owns a tennis shop, “Brad Gilbert Tennis Nation” in San Rafael, California.

He’s 61 now, more than three decades since he was ranked No.4 as an ATP player. Gilbert didn’t have any formidable weapons but survived on guile and grit. He’s excited to be back in the big-time mix. You can hear it in his voice as he describes practice sessions with Gauff.

And no, he’s not worried about communicating with a teenager.

“I’ve got girls that are 31 [Julian] and 26 [Zoe],” Gilbert said. “I think I might have talked to them when they were 19.”

While Riba is considered the primary coach, Gilbert has been described as a consultant. He said he’s happy to serve as the “assistant” coach.

“She’s incredibly hard-working,” Gilbert said, “and probably her best quality is she’s extremely humble. Honestly, she’s a pleasure to be around. She’s got a heart of gold and wants to get better -- that’s your goal as a tennis player.”

His greatest frustration? Gauff is so young she’s never heard of some of his favorite musical acts.

“I’m trying to teach her a little bit about [Tom] Petty and the Eagles, some old-school music,” he said. “Trying to help her discover some new tunes. She had never even heard of the Eagles."

Said Gauff: "The Philadelphia Eagles?"

Gilbert then asked her about the Grateful Dead. "She never heard of them," he said. "She looked at me like I was talking about some alphabet soup. I was disheveled by that.

“I told her I saw Tom Petty live over 75 times -- and she couldn’t believe it. The Metallica number is also quite large.”

Gilbert, cerebral and highly organized, has hatched the beginnings of a plan.

“Metallica is playing here Friday and Sunday,” he said. “I’m thinking if that maybe she plays during the day on Friday … Yeah, I’m thinking ahead. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. But if it does, and you get a [quarterfinal] win and see a show in the same day, life’s good.”