Konta battles back to book a semi-final spot
JOHANNA Konta battled back from from the brink to win a three-set thriller against Simona Halep and become Britain’s first women’s singles semi-finalist at Wimbledon since 1978.
It is 39 years since Virginia Wade reached the last four at the All England Club and Konta now stands just two wins away from matching Wade’s more notable feat of a year earlier, when she was crowned the Wimbledon champion.
Konta trailed by a set on Centre Court and was two points from defeat in the second but she refused to lie down and instead surged back to win 6-7 (2/7) 7-6 (7/5) 6-4.
The British number one will face Venus Williams tomorrow for a place in Saturday’s championship match.
Defeat ended Halep’s hope of taking the world number one ranking, which instead will transfer from Angelique Kerber to Karolina Pliskova next week.
“Right now it’s a little bit surreal,” Konta said afterwards.
“I stuck to my true self and tried to create as many opportunities as possible. I knew she was not going to give much away for free so I definitely had to be the one to create my own chances. I did that and feel fortunate to have taken a few of them.”
On facing the 37-year-old Williams, a five-time Wimbledon champion, Konta said: “Age is not a factor. She’s a tremendous champion and I feel very humbled to share a court with her again.”
After two hours and 38 minutes, a pulsating match ended on an awkward note as Halep patted a forehand into the net, having been prompted to stop by a scream in the crowd.
But, after two days of the game’s biggest names questioning this tournament’s preference for men’s matches on its show courts, here was otherwise a dazzling advert for women’s tennis, played at a ferocious pace by two players at their technical and physical best.
Williams earlier defeated French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 7-5. Should she win the title on Saturday, Venus would overtake her sister Serena as the oldest female grand slam singles champion in the open era.
“I love it,” she said. “I try really hard. There’s no other explanation. You do your best while you can. That’s what I’m doing.
“I love the challenge. I love pressure. It’s not always easy dealing with the pressure. There’s constant pressure. It’s only yourself who can have the answer for that.”
Meanwhile, in the other half of the draw, Garbine Muguruza beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3 6-4.
Last year’s French Open champion will now face surprise package Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova, who beat American Coco Vandeweghe 6-3 6-3 in a match which started on Court One, but finished on Centre.