Becoming British number one, winning her first WTA Tour title and moving up to a career-best ranking - it has been some week for Katie Boulter, but she wants this to just be the beginning.

"I'm at a career high and really happy, but not content and have a long way to go," said Boulter, who described her Nottingham win as something she had dreamed of since she was four years old.

"My aim is not to be top 100, it's to be 50, 40, 30. Ever since I broke through the first time I believed I had the game to become that player and that will always be my main focus."

It has been a mixed few years for British women's tennis.

The undoubted highlight was Emma Raducanu's stunning US Open triumph in 2021 when, aged 18, she became the first British female to win a Grand Slam singles title in 44 years.

But you only have to look back a few weeks for the low point.

Seven players lost in French Open qualifying, meaning no British female featured in the main draw at a Grand Slam for the first time since the 2009 US Open.

There were also no Britons in the top 100 at the cut-off point for this year's Wimbledon, with British women instead relying on wildcards or having to fight through three rounds of qualifying to appear at SW19.

But the Nottingham Open provided a much-needed shot in the arm for British women's tennis.

With Raducanu missing the grass-court season following hand and ankle surgery, Boulter became only the 23rd player to become British female number one since the rankings began in 1975.

"Naturally, I am very proud to join the women before me who have reached that historic spot," Boulter said last Monday.

"This little girl would be proud if I told her one day she would be British number one. Whether it be for one minute, one day or one year - it's not my biggest goal but shows I'm heading in the right direction."

The battle to keep that number one ranking became an interesting side story throughout Boulter's progress in Nottingham.

Before the Nottingham Open, five players - Boulter (126th), Burrage (131st), Katie Swan (134th), Harriet Dart (143rd) and Heather Watson (195th) - had the chance to end the tournament as British number one, while Raducanu (128th) would have regained the position without playing if these five had all lost in the opening two rounds.

Instead it proved to be a record-breaking week.

Four Britons made the quarter-finals, the first-time that had happened in the WTA's 50-year history, three of them advanced into the semi-finals before the first all-British WTA final since Sue Barker beat Virginia Wade in San Francisco, USA on 28 February, 1977.

Boulter played British opponents in four of her five rounds at Nottingham. If she had lost to Dart in their quarter-final or Burrage in the final her stay at the top of British tennis would have lasted for only seven days.

However, the championship win leaves Boulter 31 places above Burrage and with a strong chance to go into Wimbledon as British number one.

"Hopefully I can find some consistency and make this week in, week out - my challenge is to find consistency," Boulter said.

That consistency will be tested this week as she will lose the 60 ranking points from reaching the Birmingham Classic quarter-finals last year and has a tough draw in this year's event.

On Tuesday she plays China's Lin Zhu, world number 39, with Poland's Magda Linette, 20th in the rankings, a potential opponent in the last 16.

Meanwhile, Burrage, now 108th and only two places off a career high, faces Dart, ranked 134th, in the opening round in Birmingham.

If Boulter loses in the first round, Burrage would need to reach the final to overtake her, while if Boulter wins on Tuesday, only a tournament title for Burrage would take her above Boulter's points tally.

For Dart, who played then-world number one Ashleigh Barty on Centre Court in the third round of Wimbledon in 2019, her only target is to get back into the world's top 100.

Asked about the race to become British number one Dart, speaking earlier this week, said: "Whether it's now, never or later I don't know, I'm just trying to focus on my own things. If I'm honest I would rather be in the top 20 and actually that might be something that comes with it.

"I just want to get my ranking back up there, that's my only real focus. I would like to finish the year back inside the top 100, I spent the whole of last year inside it."

'Everyone is playing so well'

Last month, Britain's top ranked male player, Dan Evans, said Raducanu's US Open win had "papered over the cracks" in the sport.

"The rankings don't lie, do they?" Evans said in May. "There's enough people playing junior tennis. We just don't help them. It's a scarce draw."

But Watson, who had three spells as British number one between 2012 and 2015 and reached the last 16 of Wimbledon last year - although she did not earn any ranking points for doing so - felt the British players were better than their rankings suggested.

"Everyone is playing so well at the moment and this cluster of girls that are in that 100 range, including myself, I don't feel our rankings represent how well we are playing," Watson said.

"I know from practising with them all the time, we're all playing better than that [their rankings], so I'm not surprised there were three of us in the semi-finals."