Anastasija Sevastova became the first Latvian woman to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final in 22 years when she defeated Britain’s Johanna Konta at the US Open on Sunday.
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Konta was out of sorts in Arthur Ashe Stadium and she paid the price as world number 48 Sevastova won 6-4 7-5 to continue her remarkable run.
The British number one was looking to become the first British woman to make the quarter-finals in NY since Jo Durie, who made the last four in 1983.
There was no great escape this time for Madison Keys as a resurgent Caroline Wozniacki locked the eighth-seeded American out of the US Open quarter-finals with a tidy 6-3 6-4 win.
“I didn’t play the tennis level that I maybe would have liked to have played, but I competed the best I could”.
The world number 14 was down 3-0 in the first set before levelling at 3-3, and trailed 4-1 in the second only to fight back to 5-5.
“Going into this match, I had no expectations of winning, I just wanted to do my best”, she said.
The Latvian returned in January 2015 and after seeing off French Open champion Garbine Muguruza here in round two, she has now upset Konta, ranked 34 places above her. Sevastova has won eight of her last nine matches on hard court. “My opponent played, I think, an overall more solid match than I did”.
Enjoying her new lease of life, she reached the final on grass in Majorca and the final on clay in Bucharest this summer but now, with her place booked in the quarter-finals and with the scalps of Garbine Muguruza and Konta in her kitbag, she will leave NY with a career high ranking of No.31 at the very least.
“I was injured on and off, it was tough to play, it was not any fun and kind of depressing”.
Once again the Latvian fell behind in her service game, though some more slices, and some big serving and a booming forehand victor at 40-30, saw her come from 15-30 down to take a 3-0 lead in the opening stages. 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.
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Williams, bidding for a record seventh US Open title, will now need to reach the final to have a chance of retaining top spot.
