Las Vegas based Teessider Sarah Borwell, 23, has shot to position number 739 on the WTA rankings list after four weeks only on the professional circuit in the USA.

Since starting serious competitive play in mid-October in the southern states, 23-year-old Sarah has reached quarter finals in two $10,000 events. Her win/loss record to date including both qualifying and maindraw matches from her first three tournaments stands at nine to three.

The WTA points earned from the challenger standard tournaments have put her as the 20th best British player at the moment, and ahead of established competitors such as Amand Javes of Essex, Annabel Blow of Leicestershire and Alice Barnes of Cambridgeshire.

Her decision to remain in the USA after graduating and finding a sponsor for three years is already satisfying. Sarah has the benefit of an agent, a coach and a fitness trainer.

Borwell is beginning to catch people's attention now, especially having some recent serves recorded at 120mph. She was already quite well known on the inter-collegiate circuit but has now stepped up a level.

The tournament in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she again needed to qualify, saw her first beat the second seed Milangela Morales of the US by 6-3, 7-5, and then Miss Horkawa in the main draw before being stopped by the beaten finalist Neyssa Etienne of Haiti, the eighth seed.

These early tournament successes impressed the organisers of the $25,000 event in Sedona, Arizona to give her a wild card entry into the main draw, a higher standard this time. Sarah beat Jennifer Embry, the doubles winner, by 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in round one, but then went out to the eventual champion Maria Elena Camerin, ranked 167 in the world, from Italy.

Borwell has been accepted to play in Mexico as the North American tour continues, such has been her progress to date.