It had been a season of up-and-downs, but still one to remember for Ana Konjuh. Despite some very disappointing losses - many of them happened in qualifying rounds - she also collected important wins, including the first top-5 win of her career, and a debut in a Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Win/Loss

The 18-year-old for Dubrovnik ended her year with a positive record of 33 wins and 25 losses. Despite falling out of the top 100 after her withdrawal from Nottingham - where she was defending the title from last year - her performances at the U.S. Open and in the late part of the season allowed her to climb the rankings back again, ending the year with a career-high ranking of 47th in the world.

Konjuh in action at this year's U.S. Open, where she reached the quarterfinals in a major for the first time [Photo credit: Tim Clayton/Corbis/Getty Images]

High Points

Her matches against Agnieszka Radwanska at the Wimbledon Championships and at the U.S. Open surely represented the highest points of her season. In the second round of the grass major, Konjuh managed to hold three match points over the world number three, but a fall that caused her an ankle injury in the late part of the match turned the odds in the Pole’s favor, condemning the teen to the probably most heartbreaking loss of her season.

She got the chance to take her payback when they met again in the fourth round in Flushing Meadows: this time is the Croatian who got the best of it, defeating her opponent with a double 6-4. Despite a tough loss in the quarterfinals against eventual runner-up Karolina Pliskova, her run in New York made her climb the rankings from 92 to 52 in the world.

Another good win came against French Open semifinalist Kiki Bertens; the players met in the first round at the U.S. Open, with the younger teen defeating world number 22 in three sets. She also defeated sixth seed and world number 21 Barbora Strycova in the first round in Moscow, coming from the qualifying competition, once again in three sets.

Konjuh competing at the Wimbledon Championships before retiring due to an ankle injury [Photo credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images]

Low Points

Aside from her peaks, Konjuh still struggled with consistency, which resulted in her collecting many disappointing losses as well. The worst one surely happened in the first qualifying round of the Wuhan Open, where she fell to world number 132 Grace Min without winning a single game. Another tough loss came against Aleksandra Wozniak (then world 628) in the first qualifying round in Indian Wells.

In the main draw competitions, she suffered heavy losses from Daria Kasatkina in Charleston and against Elina Svitolina in Moscow, both times sent home with a double 6-1.

Konjuh in action at the French Open in Paris [Photo credit: Julian Finney/Getty Images]                    

Best Results

The 18-year-old couldn’t back up her win in Nottingham from 2015 with another WTA title, but she managed to achieve good runs into tournaments during all the season. 

Her most impressive achievements had surely been the quarterfinal she reached at the U.S. Open, and her run to the quarterfinals in Moscow, starting from the qualifying round. She also reached the semifinals in Guangzhou, losing only to Jelena Jankovic.

She also achieved good runs at two 125k events, making it until the quarterfinals in San Antonio and until the last four in Bol. In her home country tournament, she faced Mandy Minella in the semifinal, but had been forced to retire from a set down due to a lower back injury that caused her consequential withdrawal from Nottingham.

Worst Results

In the long term, Konjuh failed to build up enough consistency to avoid early exits in many tournaments throughout all the season, failing to qualify at nine WTA tournaments.

She fell in the first round of qualifying competition at all the Premier Mandatory events, as well as she did in Dubai and Wuhan. She lost in the first round in Mallorca and Doha, and overall, she managed to get back-to-back main draw wins at only five events throughout all the season.

Konjuh in action  in Guangzhou, where she reached the semifinals  [Photo credit: Zhong Zhi/Getty Images]   

Grade: C

The U.S. Open run and especially both her matches against Agnieszka Radwanska had put Ana Konjuh under a spotlight for part of the season, showing that she’d be totally able to put up a challenge against top players in the future. Nevertheless, the lack of consistency, culminated in some disastrous losses, showed that she still need to grow as a player, and negatively affected her results too many times during the season. Her young age, however, gives her a substantial room for improvement, for the months and the years to come.