Slam championship for the second time in a row, defeating her in straight sets. In the second round, she recorded a three-set victory over Donna Vekić in a rematch of the Nottingham final. Wins against Maria Sakkari and Caroline Garcia saw Konta reach the quarterfinals, where she defeated second seed Simona Halep, denying Halep the world No. 1 ranking and becoming the first British woman to reach the Wimbledon singles semifinals since Virginia Wade in 1978. She was beaten in the last four by Venus Williams. Konta's ranking reached a new career high of world number four. Having opted to skip the defence of her Stanford title, Konta began her North American hard court swing in Toronto. Her opening match was against Ekaterina Makarova, which she lost despite holding match points in the second set. The following week in Cincinnati, she reached the quarterfinals with wins over Kiki Bertens and Dominika Cibulková, before losing to Simona Halep in the quarterfinal. Konta then lost her first match in her next four tournaments. She lost to Aleksandra Krunić at the US Open, to Barbora Strýcová in Tokyo, to Ashleigh Barty in Wuhan and to Monica Niculescu in Beijing. As a result, on 9 October her ranking had fallen to No. 10. After withdrawing from the Kremlin Cup in Moscow as a result of a foot injury, she narrowly missed out on qualification for the WTA Finals for the second year running, with Caroline Garcia claiming the final spot at the year-end championships. On 18 October, Konta revealed that she and coach Wim Fissette would be parting and she would be ending her season, passing up being a reserve for the Finals or playing in the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai. She confirmed the rest of her team would remain the same and she would be looking for a new coach "as soon as possible", and thanked Fissette for his "patience, hard work and expertise". Konta's end-of-season ranking was No. 9. For being the first woman since 1978 to reach the Wimbledon semifinal and the first to win a Premier Mandatory title, Konta was nominated for the 2017 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, placing 11th of the 12 nominees on the public's vote. 2018: Struggle with form Konta hired Michael Joyce as her new coach during the off-season. In her first tournament of the year in Brisbane, Konta reached her first