KONTA IS LAST BRIT STANDING AS EVANS AND DART ARE PUT TO THE SWORD

Jo saves best for last by battling to win over Stephens

AT one point Jo Konta was hearing phantom noises and quite possibly the sound of another inquisition into the weird tides of her form. At others, and crucially they were the important ones, she looked like a player who might yet capitalise on the carnage of the women’s draw.

That she emerged from her thirdround clash against Sloane Stephens was simultaneously down to a stunning recovery from a wobbly patch and the sudden collapse in the American’s game at the end of the second set.

To understand how that looked, consider how Konta, at a set down, gave up a full 16 unforced errors in the second and had to hold off four break points across two games against the 2017 US Open champion.

Her mood often appeared to be on the brink during that assault — including the bizarre moment when the 19th seed questioned a noise from the net-cord mechanism that no one else seemed to hear — but out of all that came a quite brilliant fightback.

The key point came at 5-4 in the second set when, having barely made a dent on the Stephens serve all afternoon, the 28-year-old broke to take the set 6-4.

Stephens, seeded ninth, had made only five unforced errors in the entire set but, at the stages that mattered, she was repeatedly outplayed by the Brit. From there, Stephens wilted entirely in a third set that became a procession.

It puts Konta into a last-16 clash with the two-time former champion Petra Kvitova on Monday, where she will need to replicate the consistency of the second half of this match. If she does, she will have a chance in a draw already shorn of 13 players from the top 20; if she doesn’t, she won’t. Simple.

In any case, this is shaping up to be a successful Wimbledon for Konta. Aside from her 2017 run to the semi-final, and this year, she had never been beyond the second round. That is peculiar for a player who has reached the last four at three of the Slams and who has the gifts to do damage on all surfaces when she hits her stride.

Konta said: ‘It was an incredibly tough match. I really had to work hard to get my level up to hers. I was fully prepared to not be coming back in that second set because she really was playing well. I was really pleased I could keep battling, I was pleased I could mix things up and I did a good job in getting her out of that zone. She’s not a Slam champion for nothing.’

In assessing the difficulty of facing sixth seed Kvitova, who has come back strongly from a knife attack in her home in 2016,

Konta added: ‘She’s a two-time Wimbledon champion, it’s her favourite surface and her best

surface is grass and here at Wimbledon. I’m going to be coming up against a very, very inspired and very, very tough Petra.

‘She’s also been playing really well in the last couple years. I know since coming back from that terrible thing that happened with her that she’s playing unbelievable tennis. But I’m looking forward to playing a great champion.’

The first set of this match had been relatively threat-free until it flipped in an instant against Konta. At 3-4, with Konta serving, there hadn’t been a break point to either player, but a trail of errors landed the Brit on 15-40 and a ballooned forehand wide gave Stephens the advantage.

The American closed for 6-3 and it almost got worse for Konta at 1-1 in the second, but she saved a break point to hold and then survived three more as the tension ratcheted up in a 12-minute game at 2-2.

The signs, including numerous groans to her coaching box, were not great. Nor were the numbers — 20 unforced errors by that point in the match to seven from Stephens, who had never in three previous attempts beaten Konta.

At 3-3, 30-30, Konta complained about a noise emanating from the net cord — the umpire evidently didn’t hear anything — before blowing her first chance to break the Stephens serve with an overhit backhand at 3-4.

‘I mentioned the noise to the umpire but I might have heard something wrong,’ she said.

Around that moment Konta’s level rose substantially, particularly on the forehand. At 4-5, 30-40 she failed to convert the set point but earned another with the best point of the match and converted with a forehand winner. From there, Stephens appeared to crumble.

She was broken for 2-0 in the third and then was broken again before going down 6-1. A fast finish after an iffy start. The graph will have to be less wonky if Britain’s laststanding woman is to reach the quarter-finals.

13 There have been 13 casualties from the world top 20 at Wimbledon already and British hope Jo Konta will hope to capitalise on that in the second week