A flat Johanna Konta was outplayed in the cavernous Arthur Ashe stadium, as the British No. 1 bowed out in the fourth round to 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. Konta saved one set point as she broke back in the ninth game, but at 4-5 was broken once again when Sevastova hit a crunching return of serve to the baseline.
Konta was bidding to become the first British woman to reach the quarter-finals in NY since Jo Durie in 1983.
After a messy opener, the early signs were that the second set would not be high quality either, with Sevastova pulling out a scrappy hold to start with; iIt was Sevastova who was striking the ball better, hitting a forehand victor to go 15-40 up on Konta’s serve.
Anastasija Sevastova was so unknown when she arrived at the U.S. Open that even the official website could not find a photo of her. “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”.
She awaits the victor of the match between Madison Keys and Caroline Wozniacki. But after a series of injuries that drained the fun out of tennis, she retired in 2013.
Well, she disposed of third seed Garbine Muguruza in the second round to make the rest of the draw sit up and take note.
Ranked a career-high 36 in 2011 – a ranking she will pass after her work this week – Sevastova quit in May, 2013, riddled with injuries and turned her attention to studies with a view to getting a job in sports management.
No sooner had the Briton found her groove, however, than she lost it again, playing a terrible service game to be broken again as Sevastova clinched the set.
In Konta’s second-round match, the Australian Open semifinalist had collapsed to the court with trouble breathing, but she said there weren’t any significant lingering issues Sunday. I know I can beat anyone. Sometimes these outbursts came when she was in the most promising of positions; she seemed to be reacting as a tennis purist rather than a match-player.
The 13th seed lost 6-4 7-5 against the Latvian world number 48.
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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. She also had seven doubles-faults – the last on match point.
