Johanna Konta moved one step closer towards her fourth WTA title after reaching the Morocco Open 2019 semi-final on Thursday.
Also Read:
The British number one defeated Su-Wei Hsieh in a gruelling quarter-final to register her third successive three-set win in the competition. In winning 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, Konta improved to 3-0 on clay this season, which makes it way better than her 7-12 win-loss record on the same surface over the past three seasons.
And having earlier won both her Fed Cup matches against Kazakhstan, Konta is now 5-0 over the last five matches played following her second round exit at the Miami Open.
Konta, who had needed to stave off three match-points to overcome China’s Wang Yafan in her first round encounter, later beat Ana Bogdan in the second round in a similar manner.
After Hsieh took a 3-0 lead in the first set, Konta retaliated by breaking back and forcing the set into a tie-breaker but she went down to drop that first set.
In the second, there were three breaks of serve that sealed the deal for Konta. She took a 5-3 lead with the first, dropped her own serve in the ninth game before Hsieh lost serve again to allow Konta to level the set.
Things followed suit in the final set as well, with Konta taking another 5-3 lead only to lose serve next game. However, a double-fault gave the British player three match-points and she converted the second to close out the encounter.
She will now take on Ajla Tomljanovic in the semi-final. Tomljanovic was a straight-set winner over Rebecca Peterson 6-2, 6-4.
In the other semi-final, sixth seeded Maria Sakkari will take on the eighth seeded Allison van Uytvanck for a place in the final.
Be the first to comment