Mature Konta is grown to go far now
British No.1 Jo Konta is revelling in a new-found maturity as she bids to go further than ever before at the US Open.
The 29-year- old faces third seed Karolina Pliskova today for a place in the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows.
Konta, the last Brit standing in the singles, has won through to the third round in New York for the third time in her career.
She has reached the semi-final of every other Grand Slam – and if she makes the last four here she’ll become the first British woman since Jo Durie in 1983 to achieve the feat.
The No.16 seed has only beaten Pliskova once in seven previous meetings and lost out to the big server in the Rome Masters final in May.
But Konta is adamant her game has since improved and underlined her growing selfbelief as she swatted aside Zhang Shuai 6-2 6-2 in only 71 minutes to set up the showdown with the Czech. Konta said: “Against Karolina there will be parts of the match, especially in the service games, when there’s not much to do. “But I’ve grown as a player since Rome. I’m actually looking forward to seeing how I can ask some better questions this time around. “In terms of improvement, it’s probably in my decision making and also how or when I play certain shots, as well as a general awareness on court of what my opponents are doing.
“I’m putting a lot of effort into being very open to the game on court and it’s enabled me to play more relevant to the opponent.
“I’m enjoying the whole thing more and perhaps that’s just the evolution of my own career.
“I’m more in tune and more invested, aware of everything that I’m doing, because I’ve become more self-sufficient in the decisions I’m making, outside the court as well.”