Britain’s Francesca Jones cracks the WTA top 100 for the first time
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British tennis star Francesca Jones checked off another career milestone this week after breaking into the WTA top 100 for the first time in her career.
The 24-year-old has risen to world No.84 off the back of winning the singles title at the 36° Palermo Ladies Open.
The Bradford-born star is now one of four British women’s singles players in the top 100, joining Katie Boulter, Sonay Kartal and Emma Raducanu.
This latest landmark follows a second WTA 125 title in one month, having made her breakthrough in Contrexeville just a few weeks ago.
It’s a well-earned reward for the best season of Jones’s career to date. In addition to her title run in France, Jones has also picked up two more trophies this season at the W75 Varcaria and W75 Prague.
The British star has also picked up WTA Tour wins on the grass in Nottingham and Eastbourne, qualified for her first WTA 1000 event in Madrid and made another WTA 125 semi-final in Cancun.
Jones’ tennis journey is unique from many of her counterparts on the WTA Tour. She was born with a rare genetic condition: Ectodermal Dysplasia (ED) syndrome (missing one finger on each hand and three toes) which has required frequent surgeries over the years.
Despite this, Jones has always maintained that it changed nothing for her coming through as a young tennis star and she always had the belief and determination to make it as a top professional.
At the age of nine, Jones moved to Spain to train at the Sanchez Casal Tennis Academy to further her tennis career and then at 16, she moved to Ad-In Tennis Academy (also in Barcelona) where she was based for two years until she started to take her game to the pro tour.
Fast-forward to 2025 has won 11 singles title in her career so far – all have come on clay – and has previously featured as part of the Lexus GB Billie Jean King Cup team.
