Melbourne VIC, Australia, 24 April 2018 | tennis.com.au

Destanee Aiava’s strong form on the ITF circuit has seen her drastically improve her ranking in the past couple of weeks.

The 17-year-old vaulted 24 places to world No.188 in the latest release of the WTA rankings, and has improved 38 places in the past fortnight.

> view the WTA rankings

Her latest move was a reflection of her winning week at the ITF tournament in Osaka, Japan.

She then jumped on a plane and joined the Australian Fed Cup team in Wollongong, making her competition debut in doubles and helping the hosts secure a 4-1 victory over the Netherlands.

She’s now the eighth-ranked Australian female; Ash Barty is our nation’s top-ranked player with a world ranking of No.19.

Aiava will turn 18 next month, meaning she will be free of age-related restrictions places on her tournament schedule.

She’s now based in Sydney working with new coach Nicole Kriz, and recently switched to Yonex racquets in a bid to gain more pop on her shots.

These changes appear to have paid dividends; the youngster has won 16 of her past 21 singles matches and is nearing her career-high ranking of No.147, set in September last year.

Aiava will contest the Australian women’s French Open wildcard play-off in May, and is also scheduled to play Roland Garros qualifying – if she doesn’t win the wildcard first.