The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Inverness’ Wallace giving it best shot to break top 200
Tennis: Isabelle targets competing against game’ s elite by end of season
Inverness-born tennis player Isabelle Wallace hopes to break into the world’s top 200 this season.
Wallace is ranked 254th in the world and after a remarkable 2017, where she climbed 400 places in the WTA standings, stepping up again would represent great progress to the talented 21-year-old.
She won five tournaments in 12 months to bump up her ranking considerably last year, at one stage taking her to a career-high of 243.
She was in action in Italy at the end of last week, reaching the semi-final/ final of the $25,000 Santa Margherita Di Pula tournament.
Wallace said: “The upcoming schedule will really give me a terrific opportunity and insight into where my tennis is placed on the world stage.
“This time last year I was playing a lot of tournaments against players ranked outside 1,000 – I can’t envisage that will be the case as much this season, with many of my opponents to be WTA ranked seedings.
“The personal goal I have set for myself is to really position myself to now compete against the world’s best 250, with an eye towards competing against the top 100 by season’s end.
“I don’t really like setting myself any goals, because I don’t want to place a ceiling on my potential this season.
“Ideally, I’d love nothing more than to crack into the first 200, especially when I am only 50 rankings away.
“That would be an unbelievable achievement for me.
“Last year I started in the 700s, and now I am edging closer towards breaking the 200s.
“My rise up the WTA rankings has really made me step back and think.
“I’m starting to feel as though I belong on this level, and that kind of makes me really feel validated to a degree.
“But you don’t really get a chance to think about all of that until you have an opportunity to catch your breath and reflect on the year that was.”
Wallace grew up in Inverness but spent six years as a teenager living in Australia.
She switched her eligibility from Great Britain to Australia in 2015 due to greater support on offer from Tennis Australia.
She changed her coach from Jonathan Moll to Pablo Lozano in 2017.