“Their coaches are going to go out and watch her matches, find her weaknesses and where she does not move so well on the court”. “I feel I am playing the best I can, and I can’t believe I am in the final”. I know that she brings a lot to the game.
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“But I handle it and I handle also my nerves actually in the beginning of the match”.
“It’s a really special moment for me”, Kerber said afterwards.
Murray, the second seed and four-time finalist at Melbourne Park, spent three hours, 20 minutes in winning what he called a “brutal” match with the noted Spanish scrambler Ferrer, seeded eighth. However, Konta responded by winning the next four games to get the set back on serve. Unforced errors proved to be the key stat in the match: Konta finished with 36 while her opponent had a cleaner game, finishing with just 11 unforced errors.
The British No1 has been the shock performer at this year’s tournament in Melbourne with her incredible string of results.
“He’s very professional”, said Konta yesterday.
“But at the other point, I can lose the match, you know”. “I was just standing there kind of watching her playing”.
“But I’m really taking a lot of positive things from it. I’m really hungry to keep improving and keep enjoying what I’m doing”.
Seventh seed Kerber this week credited 22-time major victor Graf with giving her the self-belief to put together her career-best season after hitting with the former great early past year. “Just said to myself, ‘I need to figure something out, ‘ and I started playing aggressive like I had all week”. Until past year when she played in the 4th round at the US Open, J.Konta had not yet reached the top 100 WTA.
“She was constantly messaging me, so I saw her more often”, Konta said.
“I’m in the right direction”.
And philosophical Konta, who is set to climb up to world No 28, said: “I don’t think I missed an opportunity”. “I was trying to do it in the last few months”. Here I am. I’m in the final for my first time.
Seventh-seeded Angelique Kerber has ended the strong run of Johanna Konta at Melbourne Park, beating the British player 7-5, 6-2 in the semifinals.Kerber, who has advanced to her first Grand Slam singles final, broke Konta’s serve to open the second set and again in the fifth game to take a 4-1 lead.
With the roof closed on Rod Laver Arena because of rain showers in the area, Williams broke Radwanska’s service to open the match and was rarely troubled in the 21-minute set. She started unbelievable, with such a power and speed. “But I needed it. I needed time off just to, like, take a minute and just chill and re-heal, get ready”. “I had my little chance in second set, especially when it was 4-all”.
“She’s a tough opponent and she will win many tournaments in the future for sure”. 1 and 3 in next week’s women’s rankings. I’ve shown good quality, way more consistent, physically much better.
At that point, you had to wonder if Williams thought about her collapse against Vinci.
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Williams finished with eight aces for the match – after none in the first set – and has dropped only 26 games in six rounds in a dominating run that included a 6-4, 6-1 win over No. 5 Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals, a rematch of the 2015 final.
