wildcard to compete at the Eastbourne International, where she defeated 2013 Wimbledon junior champion Belinda Bencic, in straight sets. This set up a meeting with world No. 42, Camila Giorgi, who had stunned fourth seed Victoria Azarenka in the first round. Despite holding a match point at 5–4 up in the final set, Konta lost to the Italian. Nevertheless, her first-round success was enough to propel Konta into the top 100 as she reached a career-high of 89 in July, before falling back as she failed to replenish the ranking points won from her successes in the second half of the previous year. Konta gained direct entry into the Wimbledon main draw, losing a tight three-set match to Peng Shuai in the first round. Konta's next tournament was the İstanbul Cup, where she won through qualifying as the top seed. She was again drawn with Kurumi Nara in the first round, losing to the sixth-seeded Japanese in straight sets. She then moved across to North America to play the Connecticut Open; she also encountered a recent opponent here as she faced top seed Peng Shuai in the second qualifying round and was eliminated. Her ranking gave her a second consecutive direct entry to a Grand Slam main draw as she played the US Open, but she suffered a 'wasted opportunity' as she was beaten in the opening round by Shahar Pe'er. Konta then suffered opening-round defeats at Quebec City, and in the qualifying in Luxembourg. She also played on the ITF Circuit, reaching the semifinals at Albuquerque and the second round at Nantes. She ended the year ranked 150. 2015: US Open run and top 50 Konta began the year by entering the qualifying of the WTA Tour events at Shenzhen and Sydney, but did not manage to progress to either of the main draws. She was also eliminated in qualifying at the Australian Open. Konta returned to Europe to join up with the British team for the Fed Cup Euro/Africa Zone Group I. She went 2–2 in singles play as Britain topped their round-robin pool, before losing a play-off to Belarus. In the play-off, Konta suffered a heavy defeat against Olga Govortsova, a match that team captain Judy Murray said 'was a catalyst for change' for Konta's success in the later part of the season. Her sole WTA Tour event between the Australian and French Opens was at Indian