Epa05124449 Johanna Konta of Great Britain returns a shot to Ekaterina Makarova of Russian Federation during their fourth round match at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 25 January 2016.
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On Wednesday, Konta beat Zhang Shuai of China, 6-4, 6-1 in a quarterfinal that offered two compelling story lines.
Andy Murray squeezed past David Ferrer in four sets. Here she cashed in on injuries that cramped the power and efficiency of the world No 2 Simona Halep for the biggest win of her career, then, her confidence sky-high, accounted for the accomplished French player Alize Cornet and the Americans Varvara Lepchenko and Madison Keys, the 15th seed who made the semi-finals here a year ago.
Asked about her family watching at home, Konta was tongue-in-cheek regarding the time difference – the match ended a little before 4AM in the UK. “I really enjoyed just competing out there and dealing with the situations that arose”. “She sounds British and I think she’s very proud to be British and that’s the main thing”.
Many pundits believed that Azarenka was en route to her third Australian Open title, and they had good reason. The set and then the match became a wrestle.
“It will be my first match against her”, Konta said of Kerber.
In her Australian Open debut, she also became the first British woman to reach a semi-final at any of the Grand Slam tournament since Jo Durie at the US Open in 1983.
Konta will now face Angelique Kerber in the last four and the Briton will be the clear underdog given she is currently ranked 41 spots below the German. “Yeah, doesn’t matter win, lose today, just keep going”.
Victoria Azarenka in points to the sky during a match at the Australian Open.
The world number two was forced to scrap for nearly every point but finally subdued the indefatigable Spanish eighth seed after three hours and 20 minutes of punishing baseline tennis on Rod Laver Arena.
She stormed to the Brisbane title, dispatching Kerber in the final, by dropping just 17 games over five matches.
With her semifinals appearance set to raise British hopes of a first female grand slam champion in almost 40 years, Konta said she was not feeling any pressure. Konta got to match point with backhand Zhang hardly moved to reach, but it took her five more points to finish the job with a forehand that cruelly clipped the net and dribbled across to Zhang’s side.
The 26-year-old, however, reproduced some of the tennis that had made her world number one over the last three weeks in Australia, with many tipping her as a potential victor of the year’s opening grand slam.
Prior to that, she had never progressed beyond the first round at a Grand Slam except at the 2012 US Open when she reached the second round.
“It’s tough. In those situations ideally I would have played the next game and held serve after the break… but I like to play indoors, I grew up in Scotland and the weather is not quite like here so I like it”. “Very calm, good hearted and big supporter of mine who has always demonstrated he has full belief in me”.
“I just wanted to make sure I came out and played the best level I could and, hopefully, gave everyone some good entertainment!”
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Murray surrendered the set with an unforced error but from there the match turned in the Scot’s favour.
