Konta charges into US Open last eight
Jo storms into the last eight as she holds nerve in a decider yet again
JO KONTA became the first British woman to reach the US Open quarter-finals since Jo Durie in 1983 by beating No 3 seed Karolina Pliskova 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 at Flushing Meadows yesterday. ‘I’ve been in the fourth round twice before so reaching the quarter-finals is a massive achievement for me,’ said the 28-year-old, who has now made the last eight at all four Grand Slams.
Nobody has walked the tightrope of a deciding set as well as Jo Konta this year and that priceless ability helped her into the last eight of the US open last night.
At 5-5 in the third set, it was No 3 seed Karolina Pliskova who cracked, briefly kept waiting to serve by the british No 1 changing her sweatbands.
It seemed like enough time for the rangy Czech to start thinking, fatally, a little too much. Suddenly she threw in an error-strewn game to get broken and five minutes later she had lost this fourth round clash 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 after two hours and 20 minutes.
Konta skipped with delight, having become the first british woman since Jo durie in 1983 to make the quarter- finals at Flushing meadows. She was left awaiting the winner of last night’s match between fifth seed elina Svitolina and No 10 madison Keys of the United States.
After a strangely undulating encounter full of unexpected twists, Konta had managed to finally draw the sting from the serve of Pliskova. The Czech continues to be the best female player never to have won a major.
most impressively, after a faltering start to the season, Konta has turned herself into the tennis equivalent of a nerveless death bowler in cricket. Among the leading players she has the highest percentage of wins this year when it comes to deciding sets.
The reasons appear intangible to her: ‘It comes with playing a lot of matches and I have done that this year. I trust myself to be out there on court to play the game for as long as I need to. I will either do well or I don’t.’ Konta has now completed a full house of quarter-finals at Grand Slams. It is a remarkable effort for someone who did not even break into the top 100 until 2015, aged nearly 24. back then, no- one thought she would be the one to repeatedly challenge the milestones set by durie, the last british female to consistently perform at the highest level. Konta said: ‘ on a personal level, to be able to have made it to the quarters for my third Slam in a row, I think that’s a really, really big achievement for me.
‘I’m working hard. I don’t think there’s a magic formula to stay until the end of Slams.’
Such consistency leaves her standing on the cusp of the world’s top 10 and this was her best win since knocking Simona Halep out of Wimbledon two years ago.
Sitting in her courtside box again yesterday was new-found celebrity fan Tom Hiddleston, swapping his drama on broadway for one out in the borough of Queen’s.
To her great credit, Konta was able to discard the disappointment of taking only one of the 10 break points she created in the first set, when other players might have stewed on it.
It was Pliskova who buckled in the 11th game of the decider, missing a simple volley and poking a forehand long when it looked harder to lose the point.
Konta, in turn, became nervous and faced a break point when serving for the match.
but she hit a forehand winner to save herself and then gratefully accepted one last error from the Czech, who made 39 of the unforced variety to off-set her 16 aces.
The battersea-based Konta will have been wondering how she did not win the first set after opening up by dominating an opponent whose serve is second only to Serena Williams in the women’s game.
It was a blistering start, breaking the nervous-looking 6ft 1in Czech to love to move ahead before a lunchtime crowd on the recently expanded Louis Armstrong Stadium.
When Pliskova broke early in the second set, however, the match looked to be heading to a predictable end, only for Konta to spark up once again and rediscover the ability to take the ball early and rush her opponent.
A desperately tight third set unfolded, sharply in contrast to the first two.
The 28-year- old brit had every reason to be confident, given her record at the death this season, and that extra belief proved the difference in the end as she held her nerve for victory.
JAmIe murray and Liverpool’s Neal Skupski made it through to the last eight of the men’s doubles last night with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Canada’s denis Shapovalov and India’s Rohan bopanna.