I have played a lot of tennis, especially in this space of time. Turns out, though, that NY is proving a very special place for an athlete who was retired at this time two years ago.
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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.
Anastasija Sevastova, who retired from tennis for almost two years, has reached her first major quarterfinal. “I think it’s just been equal love, you know, for NY and then the crowd for me since I reached the finals in 2009”, said Wozniacki, a resident of NY.
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 quarterfinal.
“She’s a tough player”.
Sevastova was out of the game for 20 months until the start of past year, having announced her retirement in May 2013 after a series of injuries.
“I’m sure there is some remnants of it [her collapse], but it’s not the reason I lost today”, added Konta.
“I’m playing better in my second career right now”, she said.
The 26-year-old world number 48 knocked out French Open champion and third seed Garbine Muguruza in the second round and she built on that victory on Arthur Ashe Stadium in a last 16 tie which featured 12 breaks of serve.
Konta fought back to 5-5 from 4-1 down in the second set and saved two match points before Sevastova broke her serve again to clinch a last eight place.
“I have won Race to Dubais and Orders of Merits and been leading money victor on the PGA Tour but I have never lifted the FedEx Cup so the next two tournaments are huge for me to try and do that”.
“I felt I did that, and unfortunately it wasn’t enough to play the kind of tennis I wanted to play”.
“I think it was just managing my energy levels today and managing what I had left in the tank and really maximising that”. That’s what I care about, that I know that I can do it. “My opponent played, I think, an overall more solid match than I did”.
“I know it’s tough to repeat again the same results of previous year, but I’m in the quarterfinal”.
Vinci, 33, will face either second seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany or Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic for a place in the semi-finals. The Latvian also hit more winners (30 to 26) and fewer unforced errors (26 to 34).
Italian seventh seed and 2015 runner-up Roberta Vinci reached the quarter-finals for the fourth time with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 win over Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine.
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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 United States (and Brazilian) hard court swing. She also had seven doubles-faults – the last on match point.
