Double British delight as Konta fights her way into the Aegon Trophy semis and Evans advances to quarters
British No. 3 Johanna Konta fought back against Alison Riske to set up an Aegon Trophy semi-final against world No. 73 Karolina Pliskova in Nottingham.
Konta sealed her place in the last four with a stunning 6-2 5-7 7-5 triumph that see-sawed for two hours and seven minutes on centre court at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.
The Aegon Team GB Fed Cup player cruised through the first set in 32 minutes, but found herself in a tug-of-war with American Riske in the second, as they broke each other’s service game three consecutive times.
After trading breaks, both managed to hold serve as Riske took the lead at 6-5. The American then went on to break Konta a fourth time to seal the dramatic set.
The 23-year-old right-hander then raced to a 4-1 lead in the deciding set before Konta went on a remarkable run, winning six of the next seven games to claim victory.
“It was definitely a battle out there, I’m very happy to come through that because she definitely put up a fight,” Konta said.
Victory sets up a tough assignment on Friday against the last remaining women’s singles seed Pliskova, who overcame former Aegon Trophy champion Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 6-3 3-6 6-3.
It was the first time the Czech had faced former Daniilidou since losing against her in three sets in the first round of the Australian Open earlier this year.
In the other women’s singles semi-final, Petra Martic of Croatia faces Canada’s Sharon Fichman on Friday. Martic, the world No. 108, was the only one to power through to the last four in straight sets, seeing off Hungary’s Melinda Czink 6-4 6-4.
Fichman will also be going for glory in the women’s doubles final as she teams up with Gabriela Dabrowski against Maria Sanchez and Nicola Slater on Friday.
In the men’s singles draw, wild card Dan Evans toppled compatriot Brydan Klein to remain the last Briton standing in the tournament. Evans had cause for double celebrations after the commanding 6-2 6-2 triumph, having earlier been awarded wild card entry into the main draw of the Aegon Championships at the Queen’s Club, which starts on Monday.
The skip that Evans had in his step to start the game, however, looked more like as stumble as he dropped his first service game and went 2-0 down against the qualifier. He recovered in stunning fashion, winning the next eight successive games to set up victory in an hour and seven minutes.
Evans said: "I started slowly, but got going in the end. "I put a bit more pressure on myself to win, get through to the quarter-finals here and justify that wild card into Queen's.
Elsewhere in the men’s singles draw, the top three seeds all bowed out.
Frenchman Adrian Mannarino upstaged world No. 63 and top seed Marinko Matosevic 6-4 6-3, while Bobby Reynolds of America blasted past second seed Dudi Sela 6-3 6-1 and Matthew Ebden of Australia toppled Jesse Levine in three sets.
In the men's doubles draw, the pairing of Jamie Murray and John Peers will face the American duo of Eric Butorac and Rajeev Ram in the semi-final on Friday.