Konta serves up dominant win to reach last eight

Jo hanna K on ta pu tina dominant display to set up a possible Western & Southern Open quarterfinal date against Serena Williams.

The British No 1 beat Russia’s Vera Zvonareva 6 -4, 6 -2 in the third round in New York thanks to a classy performance.

Konta will now wait to find out who her op ponent in the last eight will be, with the 23-times grand slam champion meeting Greek Maria Sakkari in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

She was always in control against Zvonareva, serving with power and accuracy while also peppering a collection of forehand winners.

Konta, pictured, has only dropped eight games in her two matches and with a number of the top seeds already out, she will be a title contender, eyeing up a fourth WTA tournament win.

She said in her on-court interview :“I don’ t think Serena really needs an intro ducti on of any sort. if I play her I am going to be doing my b est, but equally if I play Maria I am going to be doing my best.

“Maria and I have had some pretty incredible battles, especially last year, so I am sure they are going to have a great match and I will have a tough match whoever I play.

“I am happy to be back playing, I enjoy playing at these courts here at Flushing Meadows, so it is nice we have back-to-back tournaments here.”

Williams had only narrowly averted an upset on Monday, fighting hard in three sets to advance to the round of 16.

She needed to win two tiebreakers to fend off 72ndranked Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands, the American ultimately pre vailing 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (0) in a tussle 12 minutes short of three hours.

Sixth seed Petra Kvitova, however, became another seed to exit, losing to 48thranked fellow Czech Marie Bouzkova 6-2, 5-7, 2-6.