19th seed and Wimbledon home crowd favorite Johanna Konta made her second quarterfinal at the tournament by rallying from a set down to knock out two-time champion and sixth seed Petra Kvitova on Manic Monday.
Despite having had very little match practice heading into this tournament, Kvitova had looked very good in her opening three matches, and broke at the end of a competitive first set to put herself just a set away from the quarterfinals.
However, Konta’s renewed confidence and form perhaps paid off in the end, with the Brit undeterred by how the first set ended. The 19th seed dominated the second set and survived a later scare in third set to down Kvitova 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in two hours and 26 minutes to set up a last eight meeting with other Czech in Barbora Strycova.
Resilient Konta overcomes set deficit to edge out Kvitova
The first set was evenly fought, with neither women facing a break point on serve throughout the opening eight games of this fourth round clash. Konta applied pressure and held two break points on Kvitova’s serve at 4-4, though the former champion was able to save both of them, and struck the next game, breaking the Brit to take a tight opening set out on Centre Court.
Konta needed a quick response and got just that, breaking in the opening game of set two, and saving break points to hold for 2-0. Things got even better for the Brit as she was able to break again and consolidate more comfortably this time for a 4-0 lead. Kvitova was able to avoid the bagel and saved a set point on her serve at 5-1, though could do little to prevent the 19th seed holding to force a decider.
After dropping the opening set, Konta had clearly been on top in set two, and continued to control proceedings in the decider, breaking twice and saving break points both times to consolidate for a 5-1 lead. Kvitova was able to apply some pressure, holding for 5-2 and saving two match points to get one of the breaks back and held to love to force the Brit to serve for it a second time, though Konta was able to serve it out at the second time of asking to progress.
Despite a nervy ending, Konta will undoubtedly be delighted to continue her good form at her home Grand Slam tournament, reaching the last eight for the second time after losing in just the second round last year. The Brit played a fairly even match of 22 winners to 21 unforced errors, and will be the favorite against Strycova tomorrow.