When Wang Xinyu began her grass court season in Nottingham this June, she ended quite the wait for a taste of grass court tennis. A 1,058-day wait, to be precise.

Before June, Wang, a 19-year-old from China, made her last competitive outing on turf back in 2018 when she reached the semi-finals of the girls’ singles championships at Wimbledon.

The former junior world No. 2 has come a long way since – climbing to a career-high WTA ranking of No. 135 in February, winning her first four ITF titles and even making her Billie Jean King Cup by BNP Paribas debut in April.

Impressive progress, undoubtedly. It would be harsh to compare her development to the player that edged her in that girls’ singles semi-final at the All England Club on that day three years ago: Iga Swiatek.

Currently No. 9 in the world and the 2020 Roland Garros champion, Swiatek mastered Wang in both of their previous junior meetings, albeit in two close battles, and Wang certainly doesn’t harbour any resentment or jealously over Swiatek’s rapid rise since.

“I’m really happy for her,” Wang said on Thursday after winning her second-round match at Wimbledon qualifying. “We’re good friends. I knew her from the juniors.”

Good enough friends, in fact, for Wang to give Swiatek a hard time about her grass-court form after the Pole claimed her first tour-level win on the green stuff, beating Heather Watson in the first round in Eastbourne.

“She’s a very good player - I think her game is really good and she plays good on grass. A few days ago she had her first [pro] win on grass, but we were laughing because she actually won junior Wimbledon!”

Judging players by their junior results is a risky, and often fruitless, business. The learnings and experience developing players accumulate along the way often defines the path of their professional careers more than results from their junior days. But Wang - whose ranking peaked three spots higher than Swiatek’s best junior ranking of No. 5 - admits that junior competition, and the ITF pathway that followed, gave her a strong foundation for the transition to the pros.

“It was a good experience for me,” she said. “I’m happy that my transfer from juniors to the WTA was good. I think it gave me a lot of confidence. I got to play all these big tournaments and see all these players before. I think it makes me comfortable being around them.

“I believe that I can play with all these top players. I already played [Maria] Sharapova and [Garbine] Muguruza and I could see that I can play with them. The ITFs give you a lot of experience, a lot of matches, and you can improve your ranking. Once you get there you get more opportunities to play all these top matches.”

Wang’s highlights this year include match wins at WTA events in St Petersburg and Miami, plus a run to her first final at W60 level on the ITF World Tennis Tour in Chartlottesville. She also made a “really exciting” debut for China in Billie Jean King Cup, albeit in a 3-2 defeat to Netherlands in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

She is very content with her progress, and the opportunities she has had thus far, albeit with an eye on even more.

“This year has been really special – and also last year,” she said. “We set up a little goal to try and break into the Top 100 by the end of this year. It will be tough because of the schedule. I will need to go back to China at some point, so I will miss a lot of weeks there. I don’t want to put any pressure on myself or the team, but I believe that I can do it.”

Wang has been aided in her progression by the Grand Slam Development Fund, having been selected – along with 29 other players – for a 2020 Grand Slam Player Grant. The Programme helps talented individuals to succeed where finances may have otherwise proved a barrier to their success, and Wang has capitalised on the $25,000 funding that came her way.

“It helped me a lot,” she admitted. “I’m having [to employ] a tennis coach, fitness coach, and physio – it’s a big team – and we were travelling a lot so it helped me a lot. I really appreciate that I got that opportunity.”

Opportunity knocks for her again this week. Having beaten Czech Tereza Smitkova in the final round of qualifying to secure her third Grand Slam main draw appearance, on Monday she makes a dream debut in the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles draw, where she faces No. 4 seed Sofia Kenin.

“Wimbledon is always special because of the grass and history and everything,” she said. “It will be my first time playing Wimbledon main draw so it will be a really good experience. I’ll give my best and focus on what I’m doing.”