Last year Emma Raducanu played in six tournaments. I believe she is permitted this year to play in up to 12 tournaments and one would assume that she would average a better result in each than last year. on that basis I included her in the top 10 but it does come down to how many events she chooses to play, given other commitments.
I am no Nostradamus, but I feel that Katie Swan and Katie Boulter are likely to continue make major improvements this year and that Maia and Francesca will show signs of starting to break through too, and I do wonder if Heather might go on a run at Wimbledon in 2019. All in all more ups than downs I think.
-- Edited by Andy Parker on Monday 31st of December 2018 12:05:08 AM
Jo Konta 18
Katie B 59
Harriet D. 75
Heather 91
Katie S. 102
Gabi T. 162
Fran Jones 220
Maia L 264
Jodie B. 280
Emma R. 330
I would love to see Naomi in there, back on form, as she has the talent but desperately needs consistency. And also Laura - it would be fabulous to see her come back and really make an impression on the top 200, but I think it is going to be tight in the 250 - 350 bracket in particular amongst our top 10 - 15, and my head has gone with some of the younger ones consolidating and breaking through.
Really interesting to see some predictions. A few don't have Dunne in their top 10, but perhaps the most interesting is the short gap between Konta and Dart for some, including just 25 a couple of posts up. This time last year, Konta was still top 10 while 21 (and a half) year old Dart, so young but not super young, was outside the top 300 - it would be strange to see the gap go from 300 places to less than 50 within 2 years, but not beyond the realms of possibility.