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Things haven’t always been too promising for British female tennis players. Many years have passed now since we had a player at the top of the game. In fact, if you look back through the best British tennis players of the past, the last top players in terms of rankings were Sue Barker and Virginia Wade.
Bear in mind these two played during the 1970’s, mainly. So quite literally, it’s been decades since we had a pool of British female tennis players who have been some of the world’s best. However, my question today is whether this is all changing, especially with numerous breakthroughs and promising youngsters in the mix.
That said, I’d like to showcase the main British female tennis players who are now carrying the flag. In addition, I will address whether they can replicate, if not surpass, the kind of success that greats like Barker and Wade enjoyed all those years ago. So – let’s jump right into it.
Emma Raducanu
Starting with one of the most successful British female tennis players since the 1970s, we have Emma Raducanu. As you will inevitably recall, Raducanu won the 2021 US Open as a qualifier, making her the lowest-ranked Grand Slam champion of the 21st Century. Naturally, this catapulted Raducanu to fame and fortune, yet she has struggled with the weight of this success since.
been ranked as high as number 10 in the world. And linking this to her Grand Slam success, she was the first British female tennis player to win a Grand Slam since Virginia Wade in 1977. This was obviously a huge deal, and Raducanu deserves full credit for what she achieved.
I just hope she can regain the kind of form that helped her win the US Open! Lastly, you can track Emma Raducanu’s next match right here on PunditFeed – for all those who wish to follow the talented youngster.
Katie Boulter
At the time of writing, Katie Boulter is the British number 1 because of her WTA ranking. She’s a former top 10 ITF junior, and her professional career so far has been decent. Sure, she hasn’t quite gone on to capture a Grand Slam title like Emma Raducanua, yet arguably, she’s been far more consistent.
This is precisely why Katie Boulter is the British number 1 (at the time of writing). Perhaps her relationship with Alex de Minaur is helping her keep focus and maintain motivation to become one of the best British female tennis players, too. I would imagine this is true given the obvious ambition and determination of de Minaur in the men’s game.
As for what Boulter has managed to achieve so far, she has one WTA title to her name – the 2023 Nottingham Open. She also has a career-high ranking of 48, which is, again, decent, but I’m sure she has her sights set much higher in the women’s game.
Finally, just like Raducanu, you can follow Katie Boulter’s next match through our regularly updated page.
Jodie Burrage
Now in her mid-20s, at the time of writing, Jodie Burrage has proved herself to be one of the top British female tennis players on multiple occasions. For starters, Burrage has a career-high ranking of 85, and she has won 5 singles titles on the ITF Circuit. It takes great talent and ability to achieve such things, and she deserves to be acknowledged in this rundown of the best female tennis players from Britain.
With that said, she has struggled to make any great breakthroughs in major tournaments so far. This is evidenced by the fact that Burrage has only made it as far as the 2nd round in a Grand Slam as her career best. Of course, I’m not saying this isn’t a great achievement, but she will need to keep improving if she is to make a deep run at one of these major tournaments.
There is no question in my mind, however, that Jodie Burrage is ambitious, and she will inevitably keep working on her game to pursue these kinds of accolades.
Harriet Dart
Harriet Dart has been around much longer than a few of the other players on this list. She’s been a professional tennis player since 2015, and currently, she’s in her mid-late 20’s. Interestingly, her career-high ranking is just one spot higher than Burrage’s at 84, which means there will be some healthy competition going on between these two!
To add to that, much like other professional tennis players in recent times, most of Harriet Dart’s best achievements have come later in her career. I say this because she reached her career-high ranking of 84 back in July 2022, a time at which she had been a professional for 7 years already.
Additionally, she reached the final of the mixed doubles tournament at Wimbledon in 2021, which is again, a great achievement. And much like Burrage, she has 5 ITF titles to her name, yet she has never won a WTA title. Then again, she has reached the 3rd round of Wimbledon in singles previously, which she did back in 2019.
So arguably, you could say she has more pull to be listed as one of the best British female tennis players above Burrage.
Heather Watson
Last but not least, we have Heather Watson. Now in her early 30s, you could say that Watson is in the twilight of her career, but hopefully, she has plenty of high-level tennis ahead of her before she calls it a day. That said, Watson has a huge claim to be one of the top two British female tennis players in recent times behind only Emma Raducanu.
That’s because Watson has a career high of 39, achieved back in 2019, and she has 5 WTA doubles titles to her name too. For me, you could argue that Heather Watson has then had a more successful career than some of the others mentioned above.
She has an interesting style of play too, which makes her fun to watch! So make sure you keep an eye out for Watson on the WTA Tour over the coming months and years.
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