Johanna Konta made three a charm at the Miami Open Saturday. The world number 11 and 25 year old British star won her biggest tournament of her career defeating Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-3 on center court at Crandon Park Tennis Center. Aggression and court positioning allowed Konta to outduel the former number one and deny her a chance to win a WTA premier for the third time this season. It was only her second appearance at the tournament and the biggest feat so far for her season.
Three would be a charm for either player going into the final of the WTA premier where one looked for her third career title while the other looked for her first title for this season. Konta defeated Venus Williams once again to get into the last match of the tournament. The 25-year-old took down the American last year at Stanford in what became her first career title victory. Taking Williams out in straight sets allowed her to meet against the Dane for a second time this year. She got the best of Wozniacki at the Australian Open carrying the luck she had from winning the Apia Sydney International.
The world number 14 found herself in another final where she hoped that this would be the one she could put into the books in her 10th appearance having never made it this far. With another chance to turn the tables on the Brit, Wozniacki had to pull out all the stops to get the job done and bring an end to finishing second for another tournament.
She had a tremendous time serving as the Brit made her intentions clear dictating the ball on the returns. Konta pulled off a very successful triple break playing inside the court and showing so much aggression from the opening. She went on to use that producing a solid 2-0 lead that already gave some concern. The need to get onto the board was important for Wozniacki who somehow held her serve together beating the 25-year-old in the third.
During the break, Piotr Wozniacki came out to speak to his daughter in an attempt to keep her cool and collected. She pushed the serve of Konta to break her in the rallies and get even through four. The level pegging didn’t last long for the Dane who continued to be broken by Konta who then reached a 4-2 hold in the set. A service hold was in the works for the former number one in the seventh trying to close things out cleanly. Konta made the effort disappear with her continuing presence in the court. Despite giving up two points, she kept her end on lock to sit a game down.
She used pressure to break Konta in the next game carrying the way to deuce where position could assist either player. The victory went to Wozniacki as the serve of Konta got a little too powerful sending her returns wide or long of the baseline. It was once again a tight run to the set win but the leverage was being pulled by the world number 11 who was first to play for the set. After showing power for the break, Konta fought through the breaks on deuce to force Wozniacki into submission on the third to take the match lead after 46 minutes.
Wim Fissette came out to speak with his British athlete, telling her that all was well and that her thought process to read her opponent was supporting her road to success. She averaged on the serve while Wozniacki’s second serve affected not only her offense but returning far lower than Konta.
With a hope of improvement going into the second set, Wozniacki pressed to get in a good start to her serve with a clean start. She still had to deal with the good reads, court positioning and attacks of Konta who forced deuce in the opening game. Once she had control of the pace, the 25-year-old captured the break and her third game in a row.
Wozniacki knew that giving Konta too much room couldn’t happen in the set and responded in the form of holding her end together in the second. She opened a lead of her own after the third making it clear of her intentions to stay ahead of the world number 11. Through six games the Dane made Konta earn her time on the returns to stay level with her. The change of tide came in the seventh where the Brit opened three break points securing the lead back.
A key hold in the eight set up Konta for the biggest moment of her professional career playing for the championship with Wozniacki on the ropes. The 26-year-old made her earn every point while still trying to keep her game alive. A double fault and work from Konta made that very difficult. It only got more dramatic on the final rally where a drop shot turned into a run for the ball that ended up catching the line to finish the match in 1 hour and 35 minutes.
“I was thinking that a third time would bring me a final but we’ll go for the fourth one,” Wozniacki joked during the trophy presentation. Despite the loss, the Dane gets back into the top ten over Elina Svitolina and a higher placement in the road to Singapore standings.
For the Brit, she humbly gave full respect to her opponent as well as her support team who have helped her get to this spot. “We’re having a great time working hard and I’m looking forward to continuing to do so,” Konta said. She’ll move into the number eight spot ahead of Agnieszka Radwanska as well as moving into the Singapore rankings.
No comments:
Post a Comment