Johanna Konta ended a 32-year wait on October 8, 2016 by making certain she would break into the highest 10.
Konta was the primary British woman to attain the feat since Jo Durie in 1984, with Virginia Wade and Sue Barker the one others to be ranked in the highest 10 at that time.
Konta’s breakthrough second got here with victory over American Madison Keys to ship her by means of to the ultimate of the China Open in Beijing.
“It’s pretty cool,” stated the then 25-year-old. “I’m very pleased with my progress over the past few years and hopefully many more places to climb.”
Konta was a late developer and was ranked effectively outdoors the highest 100 the earlier summer time earlier than embarking on a swift ascent that noticed her attain the Australian Open semi-finals in 2016 and win her first WTA Tour title in Stanford.
Arguably her greatest yr got here in 2017 when she received the largest title of her profession on the Miami Open and reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open and semi-finals at Wimbledon whereas peaking at world quantity 4.
After a droop in 2018, Konta was resurgent the next yr, producing by far her greatest end result on clay with a run to the semi-finals at Roland Garros after which making the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Her type tailed off after that as accidents started to take their toll, with Konta profitable yet one more title, in Nottingham in 2021, earlier than retiring on the finish of final yr.
Emma Raducanu emulated Konta earlier this yr by breaking into the highest 10 for the primary time having ended her six-year reign as British primary.
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