Angelique Kerber ended Johanna Konta’s fairytale run at the Australian Open with a 7-5 6-2 victory today to earn a place in her first grand slam final.
Advertisement
She joins Andy Murray, a two-time Grand Slam champion, in the semis, giving Britain a man and a woman into the singles semifinals at the same major for the first time since 1977. “It’s just unbelievable; it was an incredible playing here on the center court”. In the end, she was outclassed by the world No 6 who will now face Serena Williams in Saturday’s final. “It’s tough when it’s from the start because obviously you got to try to stop the bleeding at some point”. When the new list is published next week, she ought to be locked into the No28 position and should be seeded for the French Open and Wimbledon.
With not one, or two but three passports in her possession, Britain’s Johanna Konta could have been forgiven for suffering an identity crisis.
“I think today was probably the best match I played, especially in the second and third set”, Murray said.
Konta, the first British woman to play in a Grand Slam semi-final in 33 years, lost 7-5 6-2 to Germany’s Angelique Kerber at the Australian Open.
The Briton made a nervous start and despite battling back to make the first set a contest, she could not stem a flow of errors that kept the pressure off Kerber.
And Serena Williams added: “She actually wins a lot of matches”.
Making history has not always come easily to Williams, who a year ago crumbled when two wins away from the calendar grand slam, which would have been a first since Graf’s in 1988.
Plenty has been made of Konta’s improvement over the last six months, which includes a run to the fourth round at the US Open, and much has been said about her improved mental well-being having worked with Juan Coto since October 2014. Arguably she is the greatest women’s player of all time.
Kerber has taken on Graf, her childhood idol, as something of a mentor, practising with her past year in Las Vegas and maintaining contact since. She plays right handed (double handed backhand) and likes to play in the clay surface. “You can’t underestimate Kerber”. She taught me to believe in myself.
Williams converted at the first time of asking, driving a volley into the corner, before squatting on her feet and screaming in celebration as she stands on the brink of a seventh Australian Open triumph.
The Laver Cup, named after Australia’s 11-time major champion Rod Laver, will be a three-day event pitting a European team against the rest of the world.
American Williams has won 21 Grand Slam singles titles – including eight of the last 14 on offer – and will turn 35 in September.
Born in Australia but living in Britain since her early teens, the 24-year-old Konta also has Hungarian citizenship and calls herself a “tri-citizen”. “That’s one thing I get very excited about and anxious about: that I want to go out and make sure I am able to leave it all out there, whatever needs to be done”.
“I’m just so happy that I’m enjoying what I’m doing”.
Johanna Konta: “I’m a tri-citizen”.
Advertisement
Murray’s brother Jamie has reached the final of the men’s doubles with Brazilian Bruno Soares.
