Johanna Konta continued her brilliant run at the French Open by beating Donna Vekic to reach the quarter-finals of a grand slam for the fourth time.
Konta was already the first British woman through to the fourth round at Roland Garros since 1983 and she is now one win away from matching Jo Durie’s achievement of making the semi-finals that year.
This performance was her best yet given the calibre of her opponent – Vekic is at a career-high mark of 24 in the world rankings and has been having a very good year.
Konta took control of the match from the start and did not allow Vekic to impose herself in a 6-2, 6-4 victory.
The British No1 will not find out who she is playing until later but it is guaranteed to be a tough match against either last year’s runner-up Sloane Stephens or former champion Garbine Muguruza.
Konta had produced a display of fierce but controlled hitting to swat aside Viktoria Kuzmova in the third round and began in the same fashion here, leaving Vekic staring at the lines as she cleaned the clay off several of them to break in the first game.
There were three breaks of serve to start the match but Konta was serving better, too, drawing Vekic out wide or pushing her back and then punishing the short ball.
The pair are friends off the court and have practised together a number of times as well as playing six previous matches, the most memorable of which was a victory for Konta in the second round of Wimbledon two years ago in a battle that went all the way to 10-8 in the deciding set.
Konta had lost their last two encounters but she has been a player rejuvenated since getting onto clay, previously her worst surface, and her knowledge of Vekic’s game certainly seemed to be helping her.
After breaking the Vekic serve for a third time, Konta saved three break points at 5-2 with winners before clinching the set with an ace.
The beginning of the second set was tighter but Konta was playing with complete conviction in her shots, something that has been lacking since her run to the semi-finals of Wimbledon two summers ago.
Since then she has dipped nearly outside the top 50 in the rankings from a high of four but this win could well see her climb back inside 20, and there is no doubt she is playing tennis worthy of that and higher.
She put her first foot wrong by failing to hold serve for 5-3 in the second set after breaking Vekic.
But another break of the Croatian’s serve, clinching with a precision drop shot, left her serving for the match and this time there were no wobbles as she served it out to love.
PA
