Australian Open: Historic win puts Johanna Konta on brink of last four spot

Chinese qualifier stands between Briton and semi-finals after a gruelling three-set win over No 24 seed Makarova

(Getty Images)

Johanna Konta does not know Jo Durie, Sue Barker or Virginia Wade, but the 24-year-old Briton said here last night that she would “definitely make a concerted effort to find out more about them”. Konta and her predecessors do, after all, form an elite group: they are the only British women in the Open era to have reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

Konta joined that high-achieving club with one of the finest performances yet in her remarkable run over the past eight months. The highly experienced Ekaterina Makarova has an excellent record at Melbourne Park, having reached the semi-finals last year and the quarter-finals on two previous occasions, but the 27-year-old Russian finally succumbed to Konta’s sustained excellence as the Briton won 4-6, 6-4, 8-6 after an enthralling contest.

“I think I would have cried at the end, but I’d sweated so much I didn’t have anything left in my body,” Konta said. “There was a little bit in the corner of my eyes and I thought: ‘Jeez, there’s tears coming here.’ But there weren’t. There was absolutely nothing left in there.

“When the final shot hit the net and I put my hands up to my face, it was more relief than anything else. There had been so much tension and emotion out there for so long that the end was just such a release.”

Konta is the first British woman to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament since Durie made the last eight at Wimbledon in 1984. Durie was also the last Briton to make the quarter-finals here, in 1983.

The success of Konta and Andy Murray also means that Britain will have a man and a woman in the last eight of a Grand Slam tournament in singles for the first time for 39 years. Barker, Robin Drysdale and John Lloyd reached the quarter-finals here in 1977.

It might be tempting fate to suggest as much, but Konta has a wonderful chance to progress even further after China’s Zhang Shuai secured a quarter-final meeting with the world No 47 by beating an injured Madison Keys 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Until last week, 27-year-old Zhang had never won a match in 14 appearances at Grand Slam tournaments. The world No 133 is the first women’s qualifier to reach the quarter-finals here since 1990. Konta or Zhang, whose head-to-head record stands at one win apiece, will face Victoria Azarenka or Angelique Kerber in the semi-finals.

“I think Zhang is actually on a bit more of an incredible journey than myself,” Konta said. “She’s doing unbelievably well.”

Even if Konta loses to Zhang, the Briton is expected to climb to No 32 in next week’s updated world rankings list, which would be high enough to ensure she would be seeded at Grand Slam tournaments. It is an extraordinary rise, considering that she was ranked No 147 in the world going into last summer’s grass-court season.

However, Konta insisted: “This journey started when I was about eight years old, so we’re coming up to 18 years now. I’ve always said I do not believe in a kind of ‘light switch’ moment. Everything happens for a reason. My journey has been the way it has been for a reason. That’s to accumulate the experiences that I’ve had.”

The victory over Makarova was a demonstration of physical and mental strength. Konta was still going strong at the end of three hours and four minutes, which made this the second-longest women’s match at this year’s tournament.

Stony-faced throughout, Konta showed great resilience. She recovered well after losing a first set in which she appeared to be in little trouble until she hit two double-faults in the last game.

In the final set, Konta served for the match at 5-4, only for Makarova to go for broke and level at 5-5. However, when the Briton served for the match for the second time at 7-6 she made no mistake, holding to love after hitting three unreturned serves.

Konta, who had beaten Makarova in their only previous meeting at Eastbourne last summer, hit the ball consistently throughout and never gave any indication of nerves or anxiety, which was in strict contrast to Makarova. The world No 24 greeted her best shots with cries of “Come on!” but regularly screamed out in Russian when she made mistakes.

Konta said she worked hard at concealing her emotions. “I try to do that in everything I do,” she said. “It’s very difficult when you do a job like I do. You never leave the office, the office is always with you. It’s there in the way I eat, the way I sleep, it’s all around me, building up to a couple of hours on court.

“It’s a living, breathing thing, the way I want to be out there. But it’s also about what I know brings my tranquillity and happiness off the court.”

Durie, who is commentating here for Eurosport, said she would never have believed a year ago that Konta would have been able to deliver such a performance. “You really thought that she was going to break down, and the forehand was going to break down, and she was going to have some emotional trauma because that’s what we had seen for years, even though she has worked hard,” Durie said.

“Now you look at her and absolutely that’s gone, and you think that in a crisis she is going to be so stable and secure. I think the locker room knows that. They have seen it and these players, when they go on court, they know she’s a threat.”

Durie added: “She got through a big barrier today because it is very different: a quarter-final sounds much bigger than fourth round. At a Grand Slam, it is quite a big thing to jump up to.”

Konta said she would stay level-headed despite her remarkable run. “I’m just incredibly happy and humbled with the way I was able to compete today,” she said.

“That’s the thing I’m most happy about. The fact that it is the Australian Open and it was the fourth round, that’s pretty cool.

“But just given the situation, given the toughness of the match, of my opponent, I’m just really happy with how I was able to handle things and to keep trekking on.”