Konta playing ‘top 10’ standard
VICTORIA AZARENKA last night praised Jo Konta for playing tennis of a ‘top 10’ calibre after managing to overcome her in the quarter-finals of the Miami Open. The former world No 1 and Australian Open champion was fortunate to come through the first set before winning 6-4, 6-2 — her 20th win of the season against just one loss. Now heading back into the top five, she was effusive in her praise for the British No 1, who this time a year ago was ranked 151. ‘I was very impressed by her improvement and I’m sure we will see a lot more of her,’ said Azarenka. ‘She is definitely playing top-10 level right now. She is in the last eight of an event this big, that’s pretty good.’ A place in the top 20 beckons for Konta, but she will regret the missed chances that ruined her hopes at a windswept Key Biscayne. Konta won more points, 37 to 36, in the first set but her inability to convert the four break chances she created meant that she lost it, and the whole momentum of the match. Konta had a break point for 4-2 but after conceding that, she was broken through a double fault in the next game. She was unfortunate not to level the match immediately afterwards when a forehand on break point was overruled by HawkEye, which placed it a couple of millimetres long. Konta heads back to Europe now, and with relatively few points from last year to defend until the start of the grass court season, it looks certain that she will be Britain’s first female player since Jo Durie to get a ranking in the teens. Konta said: ‘Apart from one break point, when I missed the return and could have made her play, she won every one of them. I tried my best but she did a great job of imposing herself in those points.’ Konta, whose coach Esteban Carril was absent as he had flown to Spain, where his wife is due to give birth, added: ‘Victoria is playing at the highest level of anyone at the moment, so I was very happy to play at the level I did. I’m very pleased with the work I’m putting in at the moment, and we’ll see where it takes me.’