Thursday 28 January 2016 14:48, UK
Johanna Konta's career can continue to rise after she reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open, says Mark Petchey.
The British No 1's impressive run was ended by a straight-sets defeat to Angelique Kerber in the last four, but this career-best performance at a Grand Slam has seen her enter the world's top 30.
Konta started her campaign with a win over former world No 1 Venus Williams and became Britain's first female semi-finalist at the Australian Open in 39 years.
Her progress has impressed Sky Sports expert Petchey, who believes the 24-year-old should depart Australia with plenty of pride.
"It's been a spectacular rise up the rankings from Jo in the last 10 months really," Petchey told Sky Sports News HQ.
"We witnessed it on Sky at the US Open where she had that wonderful run there and she's gone even better in Australia.
It's been a fantastic tournament and she's on the up and up.
"I thought she handled the semi-final pressure pretty well seeing that she went down three-love early on. That would have been easy for her, to fall away against a quality player in Kerber, so credit to her.
"It's been a fantastic tournament and she's on the up and up."
Konta's higher ranking means she is likely to be seeded at the French Open and Petchey feels she can reach the latter stages of more major competitions.
"It should be a big help to her," said Petchey. "That should be the goal of any person that climbs the rankings is to try and get seeded at events. It doesn't just have to be Grand Slams, but clearly that is going to be a big part of it from Jo's perspective in the other tournaments leading up to the French as well.
"It's going to stop her having to play people like Venus Williams as she did here in Melbourne in the opening round. She got through that particular encounter, but it's going to mean that she's not going to have to face that calibre of opponent so early in a tournament.
"Hopefully she is going to continue to have deeper and deeper runs and I don't think it will be too long before she - hopefully at one of the smaller events - is going to manage to get her hands on the trophy."
