Enjoying her new lease of life, she reached the final on grass in Majorca and the final on clay in Bucharest this summer but now, with her place booked in the quarter-finals and with the scalps of Garbine Muguruza and Konta in her kitbag, she will leave NY with a career high ranking of No.31 at the very least. It seemed that the Latvian could finally breakthrough when she hit a victor to start, and cross court forehand passing shot to set up a third match point proved to be crucial, with Sevastova finally progressing after the Brit made a final forehand error. With the errors now flowing, Sevastova failed to take two break point opportunities, though another error by the Brit handed the Latvian another break point, which she took with a forehand victor.
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“In the end I just stop thinking and I just try to play tennis”, Sevastova said.
“I used what I had today and unfortunately it just wasn’t good enough to get me through”.
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.
No sooner had the Briton found her groove, however, than she lost it again, playing a awful service game to be broken again as Sevastova clinched the set.
Britain’s Johanna Konta bowed out in the US Open fourth round after a shock defeat to Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova.
“I think it was just managing my energy levels today”, she said. And, yeah, I think this was a quality match today. “Mentally I’m spent. Totally spent”.
Credit must also go to Sevastova, who won 15 of the opening 20 points and could have pulled 4-0 clear had she closed out a second break when up 0-40.
The Latvian only wobbled late in the second set with the finishing line in sight and Konta saved two match points at 4-5 to give her hope of taking the match into a decider.
Monfils, whose lone Grand Slam semi-final appearance came at the French Open back in 2008, next faces either fourth-seeded Spaniard Rafael Nadal, a two-time champion, or compatriot Lucas Pouille as three French men battled yesterday for places in the last eight.
“The main thing is that when I’m on court I have to believe in myself”. I know I can beat anyone.
“I did the best I could but my opponent played a more solid match than I did”.
Konta was out of sorts in Arthur Ashe Stadium and she paid the price as world number 48 Sevastova won 6-4 7-5 to continue her remarkable run.
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Next up for Vinci is the victor between second-seeded Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber and 14th-seeded twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova. Her court coverage and defense will make the difference here. 30 winners, 26 unforced errors.
