Brave Konta battles into Wuhan quarters
BRITON Johanna Konta is a step closer to joining the world’s top 10 after downing Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro in a tight battle to reach the Wuhan Open quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Konta won the epic, nearly hour-long first set and was then forced into a tie-break by the Spaniard in the second.
Eighth-ranked Navarro was on the brink of taking that set when Konta romped through five consecutive points to win the match 7-5 7-6 (8/6).
“I was fully prepared to obviously play a third [set] if need be. I tried to be brave and play the way I wanted to play throughout the whole match, and those points as well,” Konta said.
The Briton reached the Australian Open semifinal at the start of 2016 and won her maiden WTA title in July, which saw her rise to 13th in the world.
She is now points away from being the first British woman in a generation to join the ranks of the top 10 — and has a chance to qualify for the first time for the eight-player WTA Final in Singapore. Standing in her way is a quarterfinal meeting with Petra Kvitova who beat top seed Angelique Kerber 6-7(10) 7-5 6-4 in Wednesday’s late match.
In a veterans’ third-round match-up, former world No 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova beat seventime Grand Slam champion Venus Williams 6-2 6-2. The pair have more than three decades on the professional circuit between them but had not met on court for seven years.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the age scale, teenager Daria Kasatkina of Russia fell to 21year-old American Madison Keys. Keys will meet fourth-seed Simona Halep in the last eight after she defeated Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova, despite being knocked dizzy and forced to retire from a doubles match a day earlier. SERENA Williams will headline the Auckland Classic in January, organisers said on Wednesday, hailing her appearance as a major coup for the New Zealand tournament.
The 22-time Grand Slam winner has never played in the January 2-7 tournament before, preferring to warm-up for the Australian Open at the Hopman Cup in Perth in recent years.
“We are obviously over the moon with this news. Serena is one of the biggest sporting stars on the planet,” tournament director Karl Budge said.
Williams is ranked No 2 in the world after Angelique Kerber broke her 186week reign at the top.
She is likely to regain the No 1 spot if she can claim a seventh Australian Open crown at the season-opening Grand Slam in Melbourne. Williams said a good run in Auckland would set her up well for a tilt at her 23rd Major, giving her sole custody of the Open-era record she shares with Steffi Graf.
“[It’s] the first event of the year. It can really set you up for a great run in Melbourne and I will be looking to start my year strongly in Auckland.”