Konta is first Briton in semis since Wade in ‘78
JOHANNA KONTA sealed a Wimbledon semi-final spot yesterday in a feast of tension-filled tennis, powering past Simona Halep 6-7(2) 7-6(5) 6-4 to become the first British woman to reach the last four in almost 40 years.
The second-seeded Romanian shaded the early Centre Court exchanges, pouncing on errors and breaking serve to lead 3-0, as the Briton struggled to keep her searing groundstrokes in court.
But with cheers and cries of “C’mon Jo” echoing around the roofed-in arena, sixth seed Konta fought back, cranking up her serve and winning eight straight points to draw level at 4-4.
Halep won the first set on a tiebreak with Konta, having squandered a clutch of break points, returning the favour in the second.
The intensity moved up a notch in the third set as the Briton hit harder and the Romanian tightened her defence, before Konta broke in the fifth game and held her nerve to serve the match out.
Virginia Wade was the last British woman to reach the semi-finals in 1978.
Novak Djokovic criticised Wimbledon officials for making the “wrong decision” in postponing his fourth-round match to yesterday after he eased into the quarter-finals a day later than expected with a 6-2 7-6(5) 6-4 win over France’s Adrian Mannarino.
The contest was held over after the marathon battle between Rafael Nadal and Gilles Muller concluded late on Monday.
Djokovic was due to follow Nadal on to Court One but the Spaniard’s four hours 48 minutes defeat by Muller did not finish till 8.35 local time, which meant the Serb’s match could not be completed before dark.
The Serb, who had been stuck waiting for the end of that battle only to be sent home, said it would have been better to have moved his match to the, by then unused, Centre Court.
“I just think it was a wrong decision not to play us last night, because we could have played,” Djokovic said.
“I think the last match on the Centre Court was done before 7pm. Having in mind that Centre Court has the roof and lights, we could have played till 11pm.
“We went to the referee’s office before eight. (We were told) there were security reasons (for not moving the match). That was the only excuse... that we were getting.”
On Monday, the All England Club said: “30 000 people still remained in the grounds, and therefore moving the match would have created a significant safety issue.”
“Obviously I was not happy not to play last night,” Djokovic continued. “We were kept for two and a half hours in the dark, in a way, without knowing what we are going to do. So you were on your toes warming up, cooling down. (The) referee’s office was completely indecisive.
“It was frustrating last night. But I quickly just turned the next page and just focused on what I need to do today. I’ve done it in straight sets. That’s all that matters.”
When the match did get under way, light rain led officials to close the roof over Centre Court, but despite his frustrations Djokovic came out strongly and easily won the first set.
The second-seed took a 3-0 lead in the second but Mannarino broke back in the seventh game and took the contest to a tie-break. Both players struggled to hold serve but Djokovic won five of the last six points to triumph.
The Serb, who will face Czech Tomas Berdych in the last eight, got his nose in front with a break in the third game of the third set and never looked in danger from then on.
The only worry for Djokovic was the pain from his shoulder, which required medical treatment during the third set.
“We’ll see. It has something which has been dragging back and forth for a while, but I am still managing to play,” he said.
Spain’s 2015 runner-up Garbine Muguruza advanced confidently into the semi-finals with a calmly efficient and well-controlled 6-3 6-4 victory over Russian seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Muguruza, the 2016 French Open champion who lost to Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final the previous year, had just that bit more control in a hard-hitting baseline duel to follow up her victory over top seed Angelique Kerber on Monday.
Kuznetsova said Muguruza deserved her victory but was less impressed by what she claimed was some “inappropriate” coaching from her rival’s courtside team - legal on the women’s tour but not at the grand slams.
“It’s her physio, she was talking to her all the time, we all speak Spanish,” she said. “I know she acts like this all the time.”
Venus Williams handed out another lesson to one of Wimbledon’s young upstarts when she beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 7-5 to become the oldest women’s semi-finalist for 23 years.
The five-times champion, who turned 37 last month, tamed the big-hitting Latvian with a rock-solid performance under the Centre Court roof, winning with something to spare.