for both events, and notched her first career top-10 victory at the latter defeating world No. 9 Venus Williams. After losing in the opening rounds of the French Open and Wimbledon, Barty took advantage of a slightly better draw at the US Open, as she defeated Ana Konjuh in her first match en route to reaching the third round, where she lost to the eventual champion, Sloane Stephens. This performance brought her to No. 37 in the WTA rankings. Later in the year, Barty produced her best result of the season by reaching her first Premier 5 final at the Wuhan Open. During the tournament, she defeated three top-ten players in No. 7 Johanna Konta, No. 4 Karolína Plíšková and No. 10 Jeļena Ostapenko, but lost in the final to Caroline Garcia in three sets, despite having two chances to serve for the match. Nonetheless, she rose to No. 23 in the world, setting her up both to become the top-ranked Australian a few weeks later and to qualify for the WTA Elite Trophy at the end of the season. At that event, Barty advanced out of her round-robin group by winning both of her matches, but she was eliminated from the tournament by CoCo Vandeweghe. Barty finished the season at a career-high ranking of No. 17 in the world. Barty had a strong start to the 2018 season, reaching the final of the Sydney International and being seeded at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the Australian Open, but was upset in the third round by Naomi Osaka. Barty's best result during the clay-court season was at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, where she was the top seed at a WTA Tour singles event for the first time. She reached her first WTA-level clay-court semifinal, but had to retire due to a back injury. The following week at the French Open, Barty had another tough draw at a Grand Slam event and was defeated by Serena Williams in the second round, despite winning the first set. Back on her favourite surface, Barty won the Nottingham Open on grass for her second career WTA title. She defeated home favourite and British No. 1 Johanna Konta in the final. She then recorded her first match wins at Wimbledon and reached the third round, matching her best result at a Grand Slam tournament. At the start of the summer hardcourt