Konta cruises into last 16 at US Open with crushing victory

British No 1 shows no sign of weakness as she defeats Bencic in straight sets

Johanna Konta shrugged off her secondround health scare at the US Open with a straight-sets victory over Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic to move into the last 16.

Konta had suffered an on-court collapse only 48 hours earlier at Flushing Meadows but showed no signs of weakness as she strolled past Bencic 6-2 6-1. The British No 1 will now face Anastasija Sevastova, the Latvian who put out third seed Garbine Muguruza in round two.

“I feel overwhelmingly happy,” Konta said on court afterwards.

“I felt I did a good job today playing the match at hand, and I focused all my energies into this match here. I was happy how I dealt with things.”

Bencic is undeniably talented and, at 19, the second-youngest player ranked inside the top 30. But the Swiss simply never competed in what was a demolition on the new Grandstand court.

Konta did not give away a single break point, won 19 out of 20 on her first serve, and unleashed 29 winners to her opponent’s nine.

After losing two of the opening three games, the Briton won 11 out of the next 12 en route to victory in a brisk 52 minutes. Bencic looked almost relieved when it was over.

Konta’s near-perfect performance was all the more impressive given it came two days after her traumatic bout of illness in the second round when, suffering from the heat and fatigue, she collapsed on the baseline and needed almost 15 minutes of treatment to continue.

As the second match on this time, Konta was back playing in the heat of the day but both the temperature and humidity was less fierce and she offered no signs of residual discomfort.

Instead, Konta is emerging from a tricky section of the draw as a major force and she will certainly start as favourite against Sevastova, who has climbed to 48th in the rankings following a temporary retirement in 2013.

If she comes through, Madison Keys or Caroline Wozniacki may stand in the way of her reaching a second grand slam semi-final this year.

Eighth seed Keys beat Naomi Osaka of Japan 7-5 4-6 7-6 (7-3).

Wozniacki was a 6-3 6-1 winner over Monica Niculescu of Romania.

Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko defeated Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Meanwhile, Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic had a straight-sets win over Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, 6-3 6-4.

Picture: AP. Johanna Konta on her way to a 6-2 6-1 win over Belinda Bencic, which earned her a place in the last 16 at Flushing Meadows.