Sevastova Beats Konta To Extend U.S. Open Run
Credit all photos to Brian Coleman
The remarkable run of Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova at this year’s U.S. Open continued on Sunday as she rolled past 13th seed Johanna Konta 6-4, 7-5 to book her spot in the quarterfinals.
Sevastova, who briefly retired back in 2013 because of injuries and illness, delivered another masterful performance on Sunday, hitting more winners than unforced errors (30 to 26) and converting on seven break points in the two sets to push past Konta in just one hour and 42 minutes.
“I think I'm playing better in my second career right now. I'm handling pressure sometimes better than before,” said Sevastova. “It's always tough to finish the match, but I think I'm handling it better now. And, yeah, I think this was a quality match today. 30 winners, 26 unforced errors. I mean, it's a good quality.”
Sevastova got things started early, breaking Konta to 15 in the Brit’s opening service game, and continuing to play well on her return which made up for a less than stellar serve which saw her get broken five times throughout the match.
“I think she did a good job at neutralizing, myself. I honestly think she did a very good job. She played very well,” Konta said afterwards. “She didn't give me too much, and what she did I felt, you know, I didn't do the best job of capitalizing on.
But that's sometimes just how it goes. Honestly, all credit to her. I think she handled the situation well. Again, I did the best that I could, and unfortunately this is where it got me for today”
The Latvian now moves into a quarterfinal matchup with the winner of American Madison Keys and Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki.
Roberta Vinci fought back in the opening set against upstart Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, edging out the opening set in a tiebreaker and delivering a near-flawless second set to advance to the final eight with a 7-6(5), 6-2 win over Tsurenko.
The runner-up from a year ago jumped out to the early advantage by breaking in the third game and opening up a 3-1 lead, but Tsurenko responded by winning the next three games to jump ahead 4-3. With the set back on serve and into a tiebreaker, Vinci won the final three games of the breaker to sneak out the first set.
From 0-1 down in the second set, Vinci rattled off four straight games to take the commanding 4-1 lead and never looked back, closing out the straight set victory one hour and 38 minutes.
“I know it's tough to repeat again the same results of last year, but I'm in the quarterfinal. I have won four matches here. I don't want to stop. I want to continue,” said Vinci. At the beginning of the tournament I didn't expect quarterfinal, because also my body wasn't so good. But I'm really happy that I'm still in tournament.”
The seventh-seeded Italian will face off the winner of the all-left handed matchup between second-seed Angelique Kerber and 14th seed Petra Kvitova later tonight.
