Johanna Konta had another fantastic performance at the Wimbledon Championships Friday. The British number one put on a dependable performance on court 1 to defeat Maria Sakkari
6-4, 6-1 at the All England Tennis Club.
The two have no history on one another but made history in the past 48 hours. The world number seven advanced to the third round at Wimbledon for the first time in her career. The revenge of defeating Donna Vekic was pleasure enough to remain a dominant figure in her home country. The Brit had the 21 year old Greek in her view as she took down Kristyna Pliskova in her second round match to surpass her personal best from last season’s debut at the All England Club. With both on a collision course, the stakes were high for the pivotal fourth round spot which spills plenty of notice on the winner.
For the British star, she came into the first set showing plenty of control. While there was a fight from the Greek player, Konta managed to still bring it together and take and early 2-0 lead. A much needed service hold came to Sakkari despite having to play deep on deuce with Konta. She got it done on the second break as Konta blew a forehand error to bring an end to her short winning streak.
The two found themselves in a tradeoff of victories all the way to the end where by the tenth, the British number one found her way to securing the victory with two set points ending 39 minutes of play. The Brit had high first serve that did work against Sakkari while the 21 year old found ways of dealing with the world number seven.
The second set didn’t see her getting a grip as Konta ran off with control and never looked back. Through the first four games, the 26 year old widened the margin to four games in the set that carried a five game winning streak overall in the match. It was brought to an end by Sakkari who opened to a 30-0 run before Konta secured a point. It was only one that the Greek gifted as she secured the victory to end her shutout by the Brit.
Konta brushed off the win she gave away and fought tooth and nail in the sixth to get back in action. The players went to deuce where after a break, Konta secured the victory to play for the match that was very much on the horizon. With match point, Konta dug in on the rallies and nailed down the win with a long ball behind the baseline ending the 1 hour and 16 minutes on court.
“I’m very happy, Konta said after the match. “I think it was quite tricky with the conditions out there being a bit more gusty than it appeared and it wasn’t easy for both of us. I’m happy that I tried to take care of the simple things and just try to compete hard and leave no stone unturned.”
She’ll take on Caroline Garcia in the fourth round Monday but when asked about actually getting to the end, the Brit gave a very outstanding answer. “I hope to be involved at the very end but one match at a time and it will be a battle coming up next,” she said. “The last I played her was a very close battle at Indian Wells so she’s playing good tennis so I’m really looking forward to playing someone who is in good form and who will challenge me.”
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