British number one Johanna Konta has been knocked out of the US Open fourth round by Anastasija Sevastova.
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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.
She managed to save a match point in the ninth game of the second set but Sevastova held her nerve to secure victory after 1 hour and 42 minutes.
“Now I have a photo”, said Sevastova, who next plays the two-time former runner-up, Caroline Wozniacki. Then he pulled out of the French Open before his third-round match because of a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist, an injury that forced him to withdraw from Wimbledon altogether and miss about 2 1/2 months on tour in all.
Given their relative histories – Pouille never had been to a Grand Slam quarterfinal until Wimbledon this year – Nadal might have been considered the favorite at that moment.
“I didn’t play the tennis level that I would have liked but I competed the best I could”.
Jo Konta did her best to accentuate the positive after her US Open campaign came to an end in NY.
“I still can not believe it”, she said.
With a quarter-final to look forward to, Sevastova said she was “playing better in my second career”.
And a victory may have edged her into the world’s top ten for the first time. She said she wasn’t upset because she didn’t like the old photo that would have been used.
She describes herself as a C- or D-list celebrity even back home in Latvia, saying Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis is the closest thing to an A-lister there.
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.
“I used what I had today and unfortunately it just wasn’t good enough to get me through”. “Because if I’m not in the top five, I feel like it’s not where I want to be, so at that point, whether I’m 20 in the world or 100 in the world, it doesn’t matter because I’m going to play the same people anyway”. I still can not believe it.
“It feels unbelievable. To be out there on Arthur Ashe and really feel like – I know my ranking maybe is maybe not the best right now, but still, you know, being put out there – even in my last match where I was playing Niculescu. I know I can beat anyone”.
“I did the best I could but my opponent played a more solid match than I did”.
Italian seventh seed Roberta Vinci was first through to the US Open quarter-finals, taming Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko 7-6 (5), 6-2 yesterday.
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Pouille will face Monfils, a 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 victor over 2006 Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis, who received a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct for using his cellphone during a second-set changeover. The Australian Open champ had only eight winners, but that was just fine in light of Kvitova’s 43 unforced errors.
