The remarkable run of Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova at this year’s U.S. Open continued on Sunday as she rolled past 13 seed Johanna Konta 6-4, 7-5 to book her spot in the quarterfinals.
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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. For the first time in the set, Konta managed to hold with a sublime drop shot victor securing the game, and once again she was back in the match as she took her third break point, at 30-40, with a big victor to get back on serve. Larisa Savchenko was the last Latvian woman to make the quarter-finals of a Slam at Wimbledon in 1994.
It was the 71 percent overall points that they won frst serve which made the overall difference.
Sevastova broke Konta seven times in 11 service games. “I was injured and not having fun and I was kind of depressed, but now I’m back”.
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. I have played a lot of tennis, especially in this space of time. The Brit pulled off a comfortable hold to get on even terms for the first time in the match, but the missed out on a huge opportunity to take the lead, making two backhand errors at deuce, after pulling back a now edgy Sevastova from 40-0 up. With the errors now flowing, Sevastova failed to take two break point opportunities, though another error by the Brit handed the Latvian another break point, which she took with a forehand victor.
Wozniacki, a US Open finalist in 2009 and 2014 but unseeded this year after being sidelined for two months by an ankle injury, dominated from the start and wrapped up victory in a speedy 78 minutes. I honestly did a good job in managing what I did have, and I really gave my best.
“We have a basketball player”, she said.
“The main thing is that when I’m on court I have to believe in myself”. 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.
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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Next up for Vinci is the victor between second-seeded Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber and 14th-seeded twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova. Kerber was content to run Kvitova around the court and wait for her to make mistakes. The Latvian also hit more winners (30 to 26) and fewer unforced errors (26 to 34).
