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Emma Raducanu may just be 23 and in the fledgling stages of her career, but she's already chasing down Britain's best-ever female player in terms of career earnings in tennis. The ex-US Open champion has already raked in more than £4million.

The young star is looking to add to her £4,512,403.72 ( $6,070,403) earnings with a successful Grand Slam campaign in the Australian Open. Raducanu has now earned more than all but one British female tennis player - Johanna Konta - whose earnings surpassed £7m after her first-round win in Melbourne.

The nation's lone female representative remaining in Melbourne has now overhauled Heather Watson's earnings so far. Guernsey-born Watson was in second spot after bringing in £4,446,967.80 ( $5,982,374) in her career.

Early-season performances at the Hobart International and at the Grand Slam have helped to push Raducanu ahead. She guaranteed herself £2278.35 ($3,065) in opening-round prize money and eventually reached £5222.37 ( $7025.5) in quarter-final prize money when she was knocked out by the unfancied figure Taylah Preston.

Raducanu's earnings are already taking a boost in Melbourne. After beating Mananchaya Sawangkaew to reach the second round, the star coached by Francisco Roig is guaranteed to head home with at least £112,584.80 ($151,457).

Victory over Austrian ace Anastasia Potapova and reaching the third round would see that figure boosted to £163,999.20 ($220623.27). If Raducanu were to reach her best form, she could see a substantial boon to her earnings.

Taking home the Australian Open title would see her bag a very healthy £2,076,572.73 ($2,793,551.75), and a runners-up spot would earn £1,075,814.79 ($1,447,261.75). Raducanu's US Open win in 2021 saw her take home £1.86m.

Even the biggest success in the next two weeks would leave Raducanu trailing Konta, however.

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Konta may have retired in December 2021 at the age of 30, but she still had time to amass £7,415,807.47 ($10,008,175) in winnings. The Australian-born star ranked as high as No. 4 in the WTA rankings in 2017, when she won four singles titles and five runners-up trophies.

She won the Miami Open title and collected a cheque for £871,019.82 ($1,175,505) and reached the semi-final of Wimbledon to scoop up more than £500,000 in prize money, on her way to £2,179,785 for the year.

In 2016, Konta earned more than £1.76m after reaching the semi-final of the Australian Open, and she nearly reached that figure again when she got all the way to the last four of the French Open in 2019.

Konta walked away from tennis in 2021, stating she had simply "ran out of steam".

"Through my own resilience and through the guidance of others, I got to live my dreams," she said. "I got to become what I wanted and said as a child. How incredibly fortunate I count myself to be."