both Heather Watson and Elina Svitolina, who both were ranked in the top 50. Büyükakçay won all of her singles matches during the 2015 Fed Cup. Her excellent performance was recognized when she was nominated and won the Fed Cup Heart Award, in which she was given the opportunity to donate $1,000 to her chosen charity. Büyükakçay donated the money to the Association of Supporting the Civil Life. 2016: Breakthrough and first WTA Tour title Her first tournaments were the Shenzhen Open, where she lost in the second round of qualifying to Yaroslava Shvedova, and the Australian Open, where she was defeated in the first round of qualifying by Maria Sakkari. After reaching the second round in an ITF tournament in Andrézieux-Bouthéon and losing in the first round of qualifying at the Dubai Tennis Championships, Büyükakçay received a wildcard for the Qatar Open. She defeated Lucie Hradecká before upsetting No. 7 seed and defending champion Lucie Safarová in straight sets. In the third round, she lost to Roberta Vinci. Her next tournament was the Malaysian Open, where she defeated Laura Siegemund and Chang Kai-chen before losing to eventual finalist Eugenie Bouchard. She then played at the Miami Open where she lost in the first round of qualifying to Naomi Broady. She also lost in the first round at an ITF event in Osprey. At the Volvo Car Open, she reached the first round as a qualifier (beating Julia Boserup and Ysaline Bonaventure) where she lost to Danka Kovinić. At the İstanbul Cup, she beat Marina Melnikova, Sorana Cîrstea, Nao Hibino and Stefanie Vögele en route. She then avenged her loss to Kovinic, beating the Montenegrin in three sets and becoming the first Turkish woman to lift a WTA title. Prior to the French Open, Büyükakçay reached the second round of an ITF tournament in Trnava, losing to Kateřina Siniaková. At the second Grand Slam tournament of the year, she entered as qualifier (beating Elitsa Kostova, Petra Martić and Klára Koukalová en route) and became the first Turkish woman to win a Grand Slam match by beating Aliaksandra Sasnovich in three sets but then lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She started her grass-court season at the Nottingham Open where she lost to Caroline Wozniacki in the first round. Her next three tournaments, including Wimbledon, also ended in early exits. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Büyükakçay faced Ekaterina Makarova in the first round