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.
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“I didn’t play the tennis level that I maybe would have liked to have played, but I competed the best I could”.
“I still can not believe it”, she said.
Roberta Vinci fought back in the opening set against upstart Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, edging out the opening set in a tiebreaker and delivering a near-flawless second set to advance to the final eight with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over Tsurenko.
She’s more mature, both mentally and physically, Sevastova said. But after a couple of years away from the punishing grind of the tour, her body had healed and back she came last year to give herself one more chance. “I’m handling pressure sometimes better than before”.
Last year Konta proved she could get to the top; this year she is showing that she has every intention of staying there.
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. 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.
At No. 99 the lowest ranked player to make it through to the last 16, Tsurenko represented a tricky test for last year’s U.S. Open runner-up having knocked off 12th seed Dominika Cibulkova and 21st seed Irina-Camelia Begu to get to the fourth round. She said: “I felt I did the best I could today”. “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”.
“It’s a constant journey and effort every single day.But in terms of what I’m working on, that’s between me, myself, and my team”.
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She’ll face second-seeded Angelique Kerber, who beat two-time Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova 6-3, 7-5. Sevastova had her first match point when she served at 5-3, but Konta saved it with a courageous backhand cross-court victor and then broke serve with a stunning half-volley lob. Sevastova set up her third match point with a splendid forehand cross-court pass victor and converted it when Konta shanked a forehand.
