Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 18 October 2024 | Matt Trollope

This week, Talia Gibson hit a career-high ranking of world No.128, marking a rise of more than 100 places since January.

In the past 12 months she has won more than 50 matches, and in the past three seasons has appeared in 15 ITF singles finals, winning eight titles.

They are stats that make for impressive reading, and ones which brought a smile to her face when they were put to her on this week’s episode of The Sit-Down podcast.

“Honestly, it’s funny to hear that, because it’s not often that you sort of just take a moment to actually look back at what you have achieved,” said the West Australian, now based in Brisbane.

“I think so often you’re looking forward at what’s next, what’s the next tournament that I’m playing, and it’s not often that, personally, I really look back and take a look at some of those stats. So thank you for saying that, because it’s actually really interesting to hear.

“Just honestly really proud of the progress that I’ve made, through the rankings, the amount of finals that I’ve made in the last year. It’s a really rewarding feeling.”

Grand Slam dreaming 💭 🇦🇺

Get to know Aussie rising star Talia Gibson 🎧 https://t.co/Q6r3CarVU1 pic.twitter.com/cVRTIbOOn8

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) October 14, 2024

Three of those finals have come in the past two months, during which Gibson has enjoyed a purple patch on the Australian Pro Tour.

The 20-year-old scooped back-to-back ITF W75 titles in Perth in September, before heading to Cairns and winning the W35 title there in early October.

These results have seen Gibson build a 14-match winning streak, a run she hopes to continue when she heads to next week’s Pro Tour event in Playford, South Australia.

> RANKINGS MOVERS: Gibson at career high after Pro Tour treble

“(I’m) setting myself goals all the time of what I want to achieve, and I think looking back now, I can tick off a lot of goals that I wanted to achieve. So I think it’s really exciting and I’m super happy with how this year’s gone,” she said.

“I’ve had so many really exciting experiences – now I can say that I’ve played all of the Grand Slams, which has been a dream of mine since I was young, and now to have been able to do that is just really, really awesome.

“Couldn’t be happier.”

Indeed, Gibson has performed just as impressively overseas as she has in Australia, reaching the final round of qualifying at both Wimbledon and the US Open. She also reached big ITF finals in Slovenia and Portugal, helping boost her 2024 win-loss record to 38-21.

Currently training in Brisbane, Gibson has four more Pro Tour events on her 2024 schedule beyond Playford, and should she continue her rich vein of form, more ambitions could be realised.

There’s also the added motivation of bigger events to come on home soil, with the Australian Summer of Tennis set to kick off in just over two months.

“Direct entry into a Grand Slam is probably one of my biggest goals,” said Gibson, who is also targeting the top 100.

“I think it’s definitely a milestone, but I think at the moment, having just played all of the Grand Slams this year and having gotten into [qualifying] off of my own ranking, I think that was already a huge step forward for me and something that was really exciting.

“I think moving forward, it can be hard to break that top 100, but for the moment I think I’m really focusing on my game and really trying to progress as much as possible, and I think the results can come and I think the ranking is obviously a result of that.

“It’s exciting to see where I am in the rankings right now, but that’s probably not something that I’m really focusing on – I think sometimes it can get a little bit distracting.

“But at the end of the day, yeah, something like that would be so amazing to achieve.”

Listen to the full episode of The Sit-Down, a weekly podcast released each Monday featuring an in-depth interview with a notable tennis identity. Subscribe via The AO Show in your favourite podcast player.