Angelique Kerber is relishing the challenge of being the new world No 1, when she opens her account at next week's Wuhan Open in China.
Victory at the recent US Open moved the German to the top in the WTA ranking, while ending the 186-week reign of Serena Williams.
During 2016, the 28-year-old from Bremen won two Grand Slam titles - in Melbourne and New York - reached the final at Wimbledon and claimed an Olympic silver medal at Rio in August.
But rather than feel the pressure of defending her position at the top of the women's game, Kerber is positively looking forward to it .
"I know that I have the pressure on my shoulders because now nobody has anything to lose against me," she said. "The pressure is always on my side but I'm actually more excited.
"But I am really looking forward to taking this challenge. It's a new situation for me. I will try to not think too much about this because I learned from the years before that I have to really focus on every single day here.
"It's a new tournament, new opponents. That will be my focus this week.
"Every player would like to beat me now. So I will just try to go out and not think about this.
"I think when I'm going in with this focus in the match, like I did also the last few months and tournaments before, that worked. So I will try to continue that."
Another player who has moved in the right direction is Karolina Pliskova who lost to Kerber in the final of the US Open earlier this month.
The 24-year-old from the Czech Republic is No 6 in the world and also looking forward to the future.
She said: "For me it doesn't change anything if it's Serena or Angelique at the top, there is still somebody else other than me.
"There's still some players in front of me, not only her, a few more.
"This is not my goal until a few years. I said I would like to win a Grand Slam next, then to become world No 1.
"But obviously when it's a girl at No 1, you know you beat her a few times, it's a big chance to get there, as well."
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