Konta’s Road to Singapore hanging by a thread

BRITISH No 1 Johanna Konta paid tribute to Petra Kvitova after the Czech knocked her out of the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open at the quarterfinal stage.

Konta’s hopes of closing in on a place in the WTA Tour finals and also in the top 10 were dashed after Kvitova put in a fine performance in a 6-3 6-4 win.

The defeat did not come without chances for the Brit but she was unable to convert any of her four break points as Kvitova fought all of them off with some power hitting.

“I thought she played a consistently very good match,” Konta said. “The couple of opportunities I did have, I don’t think I did much wrong in them.

“I think she actually played well in those times. It was a constant battle for me to try to create opportunities. I didn’t get the chance to really take any.

“But I think the majority of that was her credit and the way she consistently played throughout the match.”

Victory for Konta would have seen her narrow the gap to 81 points on eighth-placed Carla Suarez Navarro in the Road to Singapore, where this year’s top eight players compete.

She was hurt further by Svetlana Kuznetsova’s three-set win over Agnieszka Radwanska, with t he Russian now ahead of Konta in the race.

Furthermore, a run to the final in China and results going her way elsewhere would have seen her break into the top 10 of the overall rankings for the first time in her career and become the first Briton to do so since Jo Durie in 1984 and just the fourth ever after Virginia Wade and Sue Barker also made it.

However, with three tournaments left before Singapore next month, the 25-year-old, still has the opportunity to achieve both feats.