Last season’s numbers make pretty pleasant reading for Karolina Pliskova.

Having started the campaign outside the Top 20, the willowy Czech finished it at No.11, more than doubling her career earnings along the way. A title on home soil in Prague and five more finals further underlined her status as one of the most exciting – not to mention busiest – young talents on tour.

Less than two weeks after teaming up with Barbora Strycova to earn the decisive point in the Czech Republic’s Fed Cup victory over Russia, Pliskova was jetting off to Asia to compete in the International Premier Tennis League, defeating Serena Williams to help the OUE Singapore Slammers walk away with the silverware.

This marked the start of the 23-year-old’s preparation for the new season, a season in which many will expect her to start challenging for the game’s biggest prizes.

A regular in the winners’ circle on tour, Pliskova strangely has found success harder to come by at the Grand Slams, where she has never been beyond the third round in 14 appearances.

“It has been a little pressure from me,” she said before the US Open where she succumbed to qualifier Anna Tatishvili. “It was a new thing. I was playing really well at the tournaments before the Grand Slams. Maybe I came a little tired.

“I am seeded now and that is different. I am getting used to it and hopefully next year I will be different.”

Pliskova is very much the prototype for the modern tennis player, a booming serve – she struck more aces (517) than any other player in 2015 – backed up by equally punchy groundstrokes and a touch that belies her Amazonian frame. Judging by her showings against the WTA’s established stars, she is equally well furnished in the mental department.

In her final WTA outing of the year, Pliskova held her own against a motivated Venus Williams in a high-quality Zhuhai final. And despite being pipped in two tight sets, performing this way in such esteemed company bodes well for her hopes of taking the next step.

“I think, and even my coach thinks this, that this was the best week from the whole year like with the way how I played,” Pliskova said after the Zhuhai final. “Very happy about this week. Obviously it’s going to help me to start the new season next year.”