Storm Sanders has equalled her best ever WTA result after advancing to the last 16 at the GSB Thailand Open this week.
And Sanders is not done yet, as she and Arina Rodionova play for a place in the doubles final on Friday night.
Sanders went down 6-1 6-2 to world No.4 Elina Svitolina on Thursday night but remained positive after another breakthrough week in her return to singles action.
After qualifying with two three-set victories, Sanders beat Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri 6-3 6-4 on Monday to book a date with Ukrainian star Svitolina.
Svitolina was the first top-10 opponent Sanders had ever played in her career and it was the first time she had taken on a player inside the top 20 in more than six years.
By reaching the second round in Hua Hin, Sanders matched her best ever WTA main draw performance, having reached the same stage in Hobart back in 2014.
“She’s obviously a really, really good player, top five, and yeah, she’s probably going to win a Slam soon,” Sanders said of Svitolina. “It was a cool, amazing experience to play her.
“I actually thought I had a few chances to get it to be even in the first set and I probably pushed a little bit too hard and pressed a bit too early, making some unforced errors.
“I think that’s what the good players do — they make you feel that pressure and make you try and go for a little bit more.”
After returning to singles in October, Sanders has won 18 of 23 matches.
“I’ve had a really good week here in singles,” Sanders said. “I qualified and won my first round and I haven’t done that since, like, six years ago. So yeah, I’m really happy with that. It was a good week, so far. Still got doubles,” Sanders said.
“(I’ve appreciated) just playing at a bit of a higher level and trying to win matches back-to-back and just go out there feeling good.
“(In terms of rankings) I think I’ll go inside 300, probably about 270, which I’m pretty happy with after about five or six tournaments.
“Hopefully that opens a few more opportunities with some WTA qualifying events, and just getting into main draw of some ITF events too. I’m looking to play qualies of Slams so I’ve got to get my ranking up a little bit higher, but it’s an exciting start to the year.”
Sanders and Rodionova take on Ankita Raina and Rosalie van der Hoek in their semifinal.
Meanwhile, Matt Ebden and Leander Paes have continued their great run at the Bengaluru ATP Challenger and will also play for a place in the doubles final Friday night.
The pair take on Andrei Vasilevski and Jonathan Elrich.
Earlier in the week Ebden lost a tough three-set second round clash with Mohamed Safwat in the singles.