Esteban Carril and Jose-Manuel Garcia, despite her 'stellar year'. 2017: Miami Open champion, Wimbledon semifinalist Konta started working with Belgian coach Wim Fissette during pre-season training. Their professional relationship began with Konta's reaching the semifinals of her first event of the new campaign in Shenzhen, before being beaten in the last-four by eventual champion, Kateřina Siniaková. The following week in Sydney, she claimed her second WTA title, avenging her Beijing loss to world number three Agnieszka Radwańska in the final. Konta did not lose a set in the entire tournament. Ahead of the Australian Open Konta was widely regarded as a contender for the title. She recorded victories over Kirsten Flipkens, Naomi Osaka, former world No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki, where she hit 31 winners to six and did not face a single break point on serve, and 30th seed Ekaterina Makarova to reach the quarterfinals without dropping a set. Konta was then beaten in the last eight by the eventual champion, Serena Williams. Her next action was in the Fed Cup Euro/Africa Zone Group I. Konta won her three singles matches in the round-robin pool as Britain reached a promotion play-off against Croatia. In the play-off Konta suffered a surprise singles defeat against Ana Konjuh, but then teamed up with Heather Watson to beat Konjuh and Darija Jurak in the decisive doubles and send Britain forward to a World Group II play-off later in the year. Watson went from teammate to opponent as Konta won an all-British clash in the second round at Indian Wells, before exiting at the next stage against Caroline Garcia. The WTA Tour then traversed the United States to Miami, where Konta progressed to a quarterfinal meeting with third seed Simona Halep. Halep was twice two points from victory, when serving for the match at 5–4 in the second set and again in the subsequent tie-break, but both times Konta recovered and eventually won in three sets. She then defeated Venus Williams in the semifinal to progress through to her second Premier Mandatory final. There, she defeated Wozniacki to win the biggest title of her career to date, ensuring her re-entry into the WTA's top ten at a new career-high ranking of No. 7. With Premier Mandatory events second only to Grand Slams in terms prestige, some commentators rated Konta's Miami triumph as the most notable title for a British women since Virginia Wade had won