Sam's previous best win was against Georgatou ranked 176
She now moves up from 69th on the list of best wins by British women to 41st, pushing her doubles partner Emily down to 43rd.

Peter too wrote:

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Sam's previous best win was against Georgatou ranked 176
She now moves up from 69th on the list of best wins by British women to 41st, pushing her doubles partner Emily down to 43rd.

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As well as a career best win, it will also take her to a new Career High Monday.

philwrig wrote:

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Sam saved 11/12 Bps in final set, so was really under pressure which actually makes this result even more impressive.

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 In Japan, against a Japanese #2 seed ranked well in the top 100, having lost the second set. Doesn't get much better than that. Her next opponent has had quite a decent run of form recently, and is up around 100 ranking places on the year to around 200, so Sam may need to play at a similar level to today to be in with a shot. Fingers crossed. 

That really is a spectacular win - to beat a top 100 player at (their) home when you haven't even beaten a top 150 player takes some doing, and to do it by holding her nerve in a tight final set tiebreak just shows how much self-belief Sam must have at the moment.

I seem to disagree with TBE on how many points Sam will now have - I make it 189, he makes it 6 less (not sure what one of us may have missed - we'll find out who's right on Monday) but either way, Sam is assured of a new career high in the 270s on Monday.

What a great result! I didn't think she had a hope of getting past Doi! well done Sam!

Go and win it now or I'll excuse you if you're against the top seed in the final! but just don't fall to the lesser ranked

Sam's progress has been very pronounced recently. She also had a pretty good end to 2011, with plenty of late points to defend (which she will do comfortably and then some, even more so if she keeps winning in Japan and/or plays next week in Dubai and wins a match or 2).

What I hadn't realised is that Sam had been a decent young player with a ITF pro ranking (albeit not a significant one - would have sneaked her onto today's top GB 25, although probably not back in the day), but then went to a US college for a good 3 or 4 years without playing, only returning to the ITF/WTA tour at the very end of 2010. So a good few years away from the pro tour.

So in effect she has just played 2 full years on the tour since college, starting from unranked at the (relatively late) age of 23 in October 2010.

In 2011 (year 1) she made it just inside the top 400 by year end, with a big final surge from about 470 in late October. That's a very impressive achievement I think for someone that didn't especially stand out as a younger player. Touch of the Neil Pauffley's about it.

In 2012 (year 2) she's already taken another big stride forward to at least 270 and could possibly push on towards 250 if more results go her way. When many of the girls are getting tired at the end of the year, Sam seems to be coming into her own.

Good stuff from the Bath Academy having 2 girls inside the top 300 (Lisa Whybourn).

Won't be setting the alarm clock for tonight, but I'm sure we all wish her well

As far as I can make out, prior to October this year, Sam had beaten a total of 5 top 300 players ( 4 last year and 1 earlier this year ). She has now beaten 8 more in the last 6 weeks.