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.
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The world number 14 was down 3-0 in the first set before levelling at 3-3, and trailed 4-1 in the second only to fight back to 5-5.
“After such a tough year, it’s incredible to be in the quarter-finals”, said the 26-year-old whose Grand Slam record this year had seen first round losses in Australia and Wimbledon while she sat out Roland Garros. In the victory, Sevastova won 61 percent of her first serve points and 40 percent of her second serve points. I think I needed to perhaps be a little more offensive in certain parts and also be able to just move a bit better. But after a series of injuries that drained the fun out of tennis, she retired in 2013.
Sevastova – who retired from the sport in 2013 – will now play either eighth seed Madison Keys or Caroline Wozniacki in the quarter-finals in NY.
It was a remarkable contrast to her third-round performance against Swiss prodigy Belinda Bencic, when she lost just one point on her first serve.
The Latvian returned in January 2015 and after seeing off French Open champion Garbine Muguruza here in round two, she has now upset Konta, ranked 34 places above her.
“I did some studying, played with kids in tennis, gave some lessons”.
Matches on Monday at the US Open will be (6) Venus Williams vs. (10) Karolina Pliskova, (1) Serena Williams vs. Yaroslava Shvedova, (4) Aggie Radwansla va. Ana Konjuh, and (5) Simona Halep vs. (11) Carla Suarez Navarro. “She played very well”, Konta said afterwards.
“I did the best I could but my opponent played a more solid match than I did”. She said: “I felt I did the best I could today”.
“The main thing is that when I’m on court I have to believe in myself”.
To Konta’s credit, she acknowledged in her interviews to British Eurosport that Sevastova had outplayed her, and in keeping with her practice of refusing to live or die by her results – she has a lot to be hapy with in this U.S. (and Brazilian) hard court swing. “I guess I broke the rule and I got a warning for it, but I was just writing a message to my wife”. “I’m really happy about the way I played”.
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The 27-year-old Ukrainian looked prepared to add another seeded scalp to her Flushing Meadows collection as she forced the first set to a tie-break before surrendering 7-5. The Brit pulled off a comfortable hold to get on even terms for the first time in the match, but the missed out on a huge opportunity to take the lead, making two backhand errors at deuce, after pulling back a now edgy Sevastova from 40-0 up.
