Ashleigh Barty becomes the first Australian in 43 years to reach the top spot of the WTA singles ranking after she won the Birmingham Classic grass-court title by beating Germany's Julia Goerges 6-3, 7-5 on Monday.
The former junior Wimbledon champion took a two-year break from tennis to play professional cricket a few years ago.
This year, she reached her career first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the Australian Open, claimed her maiden major and WTA Premier Mandatory title in Miami and won first major title at French Open in Paris. Now she replaces Japan's Naomi Osaka to top the WTA singles ranking.
The 23-year-old becomes the first Australian to win the French Open since Margaret Court in 1973. She has now won six WTA singles' titles and ten doubles' titles including last year's U. S. Open.
Barty says the team have put so much time with passion and energy into her career. /VCG Photo
"It's been the most incredible journey for me and my team," said Barty.
Barty said it had been a childhood dream to become world number one.
"I'm a little bit speechless, it's been a whirlwind few weeks to be honest and to be able to follow in the footsteps of Yvonne and even mentioned in the same sentence is incredible," Barty said during the on-court trophy presentation.
"We started from scratch without a ranking and now to be where we are, not only for me, is a massive, massive achievement for my team."