Johanna Konta swept aside seventh seed Sloane Stephens with an extraordinary display to reach her third grand slam semi-final at the French Open. By reaching the last four, Konta has matched her own best grand slam performances at the Australian Open in 2016 and Wimbledon the following year, as well as the performance of Jo Durie, who was the last British woman to reach the last four here in 1983. A lot of credit must go to Konta’s French coach Dimitri Zavialoff, who she began working with in October and who has imbued her with the self-belief to trust in her game and her decision-making. Konta serves against Stephens (Pavel Golovkin/AP)As usual, Court Philippe Chatrier began the day sparsely populated, which hardly made for a big-match feel. Both players looked a little nervous at the outset but Konta held serve after an eight-minute opening game and then quickly stamped her authority on proceedings.

Source: Irish Examiner June 04, 2019 13:30 UTC