#5. Ana Konjuh
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The two-time junior Grand Slam champion made her debut on the ATP World Tour in 2014. She reached the third round of the Wimbledon Championships that year and ended the year ranked 90. Last year, she won the Aegon Open in Nottingham, thus becoming the youngest player to win a WTA title since Tamira Paszek in 2006.This year, Konjuh began her Tour by winning her first ever match at the Australian Open before being eliminated in the second round. After a series of failed qualifications throughout the remainder of the hard-court and for most of the clay-court season, Konjuh reached the second round of the French Open where she went down to Dominika Cibulkova in three sets.She began her grass-court season with a first round exit at the Mallorca Open which was followed by a successful qualification to the Eastbourne International. She reached the second round of the main draw before retiring against Monica Puig.
At Wimbledon, Konjuh beat Italian Karin Knapp in the first round to setup a match with 2012 runner-up Aga Radwanska. Radwanska took the first set but Konjuh came back to win the second set. During the exciting third set, Konjuh injured her ankle and Radwanska eventually took the set 9-7 to win the match.After exiting the Rio Olympics in the second round and failing to qualify for the Cincinnati Masters, Konjuh came into the US Open ranked 92 in the world. In the first round, she upset Roland Garros semi-finalist Kiki Bertens. She then beat higher ranked players like Kurumi Nara and Varvara Lepchenko to face Radwanska in what would be a rematch of their Wimbledon meeting.
This time, Konjuh beat the Pole in straight sets to reach her first ever Grand Slam quarter-final, thus becoming the youngest Grand Slam quarter-finalist in a decade and the first female Croat to do so since Karolina Sprem at the 2004 Wimbledon Championships. In the last eight, she was beaten by eventual runner-up Karolina Pliskova in straight sets. She rose 40 places up to 52nd following the tournament.The US Open was followed by another quarter-final appearance at the Guangzhou Open. After failed attempts to qualify for the Wuhan and China Opens, Konjuh ended her Tour by reaching the quarter-finals of the Kremlin Cup where she was beaten by Elina Svitolina. She will end the year ranked 48th in the world.The Croat has produced quite a few promising performances and provided she maintains her form, Iva Majoli may not remain the only female Grand Slam Singles champion from Croatia.
