Dan Evans beats Dominic Thiem at Sydney International; Johanna Konta into women's final
Evans into last four; Konta to face Radwanska in final
Thursday 12 January 2017 16:03, UK
Dan Evans battled back from a set down to beat world No 8 Dominic Thiem at the Sydney International, while Johanna Konta made the women's final.
The British No 3, currently ranked 67th in the world, saw Thiem produce a masterclass in the opening set before rallying to produce a superb comeback victory that gives him a first victory over a current member of the world's top 10 and a first semi-final since February 2014.
Evans raced into a 3-0 lead in the second set with a double break but Thiem battled back to level before Evans gathered himself to level the match and then run away with the decider against the flagging Austrian.
Next up for Evans will be Russia's Andrey Kuznetsov who also needed three sets before toppling fourth seed Pablo Carreno Busta.
The pair have met once before at Wimbledon in 2014 when Kuznetsoz won in four sets and Evans, who took Stan Wawrinka to five sets at the US Open in September and was beaten by Roger Federer at Wimbledon last year, faces a challenge to back up his performance.
"I played him at Wimbledon before and he beat me so it will be another tough match and he had a good win today so we will see what happens tomorrow," Evans said.
"The first was pretty much what I thought was going to happen.
"But I knew I had to hang in there and do a lot of running to try and put my game onto him and come forward and in the end I did that."
The other semi-final will see the highest remaining seed Viktor Troicki take on Gilles Muller. Third seed Troicki was handed a walkover when Philipp Kohlschreiber was forced to pull out of their quarter-final, while Muller saw off second seed Pablo Cuevas in straight sets.
In the women's event Johanna Konta had little trouble in seeing off Canada's Eugenie Bouchard, winning 6-2 6-2 to reach the final against world No 3 Agnieszka Radwanska.
Konta took to the court after Evans' victory and is yet to drop a set at the tournament so far. The British No 1 reeled off seven games in succession from 2-2 in the opening set to quell the Bouchard challenge and book a place in a third WTA final.
Konta won her first title in Stanford last summer and in her last final lost to Radwanska in Beijing in October, the Pole beat
"Dan Evans started it off and I'm just happy I was able to bring it home," Konta said in her on court interview.
"She's [Radwanska] been one of the best players for as long as I can remember. I played her twice before, lost twice, so hopefully I'll do a better job tomorrow."
In Auckland the semi-final line-up is also complete with former Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis through to face Joao Sousa and Jack Sock through to meet Steve Johnson.
Baghdatis, a runner-up in Melbourne in 2006, beat Jiri Vesely 6-2 6-4 while Sousa saw off Robin Haase in straight sets.
Sock battled back from a set down to beat France's Jeremy Chardy and Johnson beat second seed John Isner in a three-set battle of the big serving Americans.
