Britain’s Johanna Konta staved off the Karolina Pliskova challenge to march into her third quarter-final in a row at Grand Slams.
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Konta, who had earlier lost to Pliskova in the Rome Open, came back from a set down to complete a 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 win over the third seeded player. The Brit, who has had a quarter-final at the Australian Open prior to this year, made it three successive Grand Slam last-eights in a row with this victory.
An early break for Konta in the first set went in vain as, despite having other break-points in the set, she failed to convert them. Pliskova fought on before managing to break back in the 10th game when Konta was looking to serve for the set.
It was one-way traffic once the set went into a tie-breaker as Pliskova clinched it 7-1 to go one up.
Things turned around dramatically in the second set when Pliskova went 3-1 ahead with a break of serve but Konta refused to cave in too easily. With a quarter-final berth at stake, the Brit reeled off five games in a row to level the match and take it into the final set.
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The third set was evenly fought till the 10th game, with neither player losing serve and more vitally, exhibiting a very high percentage of first serves. It was only in the 11th game that Pliskova lost her rhythm and her serve as a result, leaving Konta to serve for the match.
It took Konta her second match-point to clinch the match and march into the last-eight.
A fourth round loss for Pliskova leaves her with a lot of questions. Despite her overall consistency this year, with solid performances across surfaces, Pliskova is yet to win a Grand Slam title. In fact, she is the only one of the top four players in the world not to have won it, and another loss without really challenging for the title might call for questions around the record.
Konta will now take on the winner of the match between fifth seeded Elina Svitolina and tenth seeded Madison Keys in the quarter-finals.
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