Caroline Garcia
The Frenchwoman had been successful on the doubles circuit, but in 2017 had a breakthrough year in the singles, making the quarter-final of a Major for the first time at the French Open, following it up with her first fourth-round showing at Wimbledon.
It was a late-season surge that saw her really start to dominate, as she became the first WTA player to win the Wuhan Open and China Open back-to-back, a feat which allowed her to qualify for the season-ending WTA Finals, where she made it to the semi-final.
Her 2018 season started well, as she reached quarter-finals in Dubai and Italy, the semi-final in Madrid, and second weeks at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, reaching a career-high ranking of world No 4 in September, boosted by her points from the Asian hard-court swing the previous year.
However, towards the end of the season Garcia started to struggle with consistency – bar a quarter-final showing in the Canadian Open, she lost in the first round of Wimbledon and the third round of the US Open, and failed to make it past the third round of any of the big WTA 1000 events after Montreal.
