"It means everything" - Harriet Dart on breakout run at Indian Wells

Dart produced her best showing at the highest level in women’s tennis as she reached the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open last week.

After coming through two qualifying rounds to reach the main draw, her first-round opponent Ana Konjuh threw in the towel with Dart leading 6-3, 3-1. She then stunned former world No 1 Elina Svitolina in the second round before seeing off Kaia Kanepi from Estonia in the third round. She fell in the fourth round against Madison Keys, but her run helped her to climb into the WTA top 100 for the first time.

She said:

“It means everything – my entire life has been about tennis and to finally reap the rewards in reaching the top 100 means so much. I think any player who plays tennis and has dreams of reaching the top, that’s a big step. It’s been insane – on my debut here, to win five matches, if someone had told me that at the start of the week I would have laughed."

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Speaking what had changed, she admitted:

“The biggest change (in my game) for me has been my emotional maturity over the last year and how far I’ve come in that sense. I have so much more to learn and develop in that area but to me it’s about channelling my emotion on court in the right direction, and I feel like this week has been a telling sign that I’m improving. When things have got close I’ve really stepped up to the plate and haven’t let my emotions take hold of me. I’ve kept in the moment and really believed in myself.”