Anastasija Sevastova, of Latvia, celebrates after winning her match with Johanna Konta, of the United Kingdom, during the fourth round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016, in NY.
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The British No 1 was unable to find her rhythm and range in hard conditions as sunshine cast a shadow across the Arthur Ashe court that caused both players a host of problems.
Sevastova served for the match at 5-3, but Konta saved the match point and broke, to the increasing frustration (and by the looks of it, utter devastation) of Sevastova, who saw a second match point go begging as Konta managed a rare hold.
Sevastova is the first Latvian woman to make the final eight at a Grand Slam tournament since Larisa Savchenko Neiland at Wimbledon in 1994. “Mentally I’m spent. Totally spent”.
“I had a lot of injuries”.
It was quickly snuffed out, however, as Sevastova dug deep to hold and when a Konta forehand spiralled out, her victory was assured after one hour and 42 minutes.
“I’m playing better in my second career right now”, she said. “That’s it”, the 30-year-old Nadal said. Some hesitant tennis saw her hand the break back, though once again it didn’t matter as the Brit hit a forehand error, as well as two drop shots which the Latvian easily go to, to set up three break points; she only needed one, hitting a ideal drop shot victor. Yet Konta has not only defended the ranking points she earned in NY a year ago but literally pulled herself up off her knees to do so, overcoming humidity, hyperventilation and on-court collapse to squeak past Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova in round two.
Anastasija Sevastova, who quit tennis suffering from depression and injury in 2013, on Sunday became the first Latvian woman in 22 years to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final.
In the mixed doubles, India’s Sania Mirza’s campaign came to an end as she and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig lost their second round match to unheralded Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic and Marin Draganja of Croatia in straight sets 3-6, 4-6.
Wozniacki is a two-time runner-up at Flushing Meadows, but she is unseeded and ranked only 74th after a season filled with injuries and poor results.
“I just told myself to fight and fight”. “My opponent played, I think, an overall more solid match than I did”. “She didn’t give me too much, and what she did I felt, you know, I didn’t do the best job of capitalizing on”. “Playing these match points, it’s tough”.
Italian seventh seed Roberta Vinci was first through to the U.S. Open quarterfinals, taming Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko 7-6 (5), 6-2 on Sunday.
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After a messy opener, the early signs were that the second set would not be high quality either, with Sevastova pulling out a scrappy hold to start with; iIt was Sevastova who was striking the ball better, hitting a forehand victor to go 15-40 up on Konta’s serve. Her court coverage and defense will make the difference here.
