The two-faced for the first time last year at Rome where the British number one walloped the competition. After a strong start against Bernarda Pera on Tuesday, Konta would look to repeat her same style of winning against the Romanian. Begu pulled off a three-set win against Aliaksandra Sasnovich, making her second straight match that went the distance. While she would try to give Konta a lot more fight, it would be up to her timing to outduel the Brit.
She blew her chance to take the opening lead as Konta rushed to a lead and captured the break allowing Begu one point. She consolidated the break with a good service that saw the Romanian follow suit. She battled the Brit in the third game but a force of deuce saved her service hold. They went the next two games with service holds until the sixth when Begu leveled when Konta had a miscue on serve to hand a break.
Begu consolidated with a serve to love but couldn’t keep up the momentum of winning two games. Konta got back on track, evening them to four-all before a break of Begu in the ninth set up her shot at the set. The British number one opened up two set points with the next one clinching the early lead after 50 minutes. Both played even tennis with the difference being the double fault Begu made.
She knew that the smallest of errors couldn’t be made against Konta and made it a point early. After suffering another break of serve in the opening game, she rallied back to give Konta trouble. The fifth seed suffered a setback that forced deuce for the Romanian, capturing the break back. She had the lead with a strong service game to consolidate a lead for herself but a shutout from Konta leveled them back through four games. They got even again through six when Konta matched Begu despite fighting hard to hold serve.
The 30-year-old held in the seventh and followed it up by breaking Konta apart for a 5-3 stand. With a chance to force a decider, Begu slipped up committing the errors needed for Konta to break back. Begu let her anger out with a throw of the racket that hit the legs of a ball kid. She was given a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct and a chance to calm down. In the tenth, she opened a lead against the Brit’s service before forcing an error that brought the game to deuce.
Surviving three set points, Konta made her way to forcing the set deeper with Begu enraged. She responded by putting her anger into holding serve and pressuring Konta to make it or break it. The British number one held her end in the 12th to force a huge tiebreak that would take them into a long decider or give the fifth seed victory.
Begu opened the tiebreak with a pair of points before giving Konta two for herself. They got to a four-all tie before Begu made the push to earn another set point. One went down as Konta nailed the line to save yet another one. The Romanian with the ball in hand but failed to get it locked up on her fifth attempt. After saving five set points for her opponent, Konta earned her first match point attempt at 7-6. A drop shot attempt was returned well by Begu with a simply lined lob.
The 30-year old earned a sixth set point on serve but erred the ball into the net. The two were locked at eight-all until a long ball from Begu brought up a second match point. Konta’s return was just over the baseline, returning them to a stalemate. They got to ten-all until a big point win for Begu gave her an eighth set point. With the score at 11-10, Begu focused on the rally and witnessed her opponent make a disastrous mistake. A lob attempt that didn’t fare well for match point killed a straight sets situation ending 1 hour and 22 minutes.
Konta opened the third with a fight from Begu, who threatened with a force of deuce. She had a breakpoint chance but missed her shot, allowing the Brit to hold serve. The Romanian held and consolidated in the third with a break of serve to Konta. The next three games went briskly with each holding serve on one another. By the seventh, there was a push from Begu but only sat a game up.
She held the eighth to pressure Konta to break and fall out of the competition. Gaining her first of three match points, the first popped up and landed wide. The second recorded as a forced error by the Romanian leaving her with one more to go. Konta saved all three with a return becoming a pop fly return landing outside the court. Konta took the game, pressuring Begu in the rallies to hold on.
She earned her moment to serve for the match and started the tenth game with a crosscourt ace. A net-front return inched her closer before she nailed her second ace bringing up three match points. Konta saved a fourth with a crosscourt return where Begu wasn’t. A return winner followed by a net point saved every point to go to deuce. Begu gave herself a seventh match point attempt but got under pressure, losing out on that chance.
Konta put herself in a good place, holding serve in the 11th to pressure her Romanian opponent. With it being Begu’s serve for the 12th, the 30-year-old pushed the match to the brink with a hold of serve for a final tiebreak with the fifth seed. The two traded points through six until mistakes from Konta gave Begu a 5-3 lead. She scored the penultimate one that set up an eighth match point but fell long. A ninth was the winner for the Romanian as she came close to the net and nailed the shot inside ending a marathon 3 hour and 35-minute ordeal.
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