Konta's bid to become the first British winner at Roland Garros since Sue Barker in 1976 ended by Vondrousova; Australian Ash Barty reaches Saturday's final
Friday 7 June 2019 19:09, UK
Johanna Konta's hopes of becoming the first British female player to reach the French Open final in 43 years were ended by Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova.
Konta, who had lost all four first-round matches she had played at Roland Garros prior to this year, was aiming to go one better than Jo Durie to become the first woman from these shores to reach the final in Paris since Sue Barker, who won the title in 1976.
She was also looking to become the first British woman to win a slam singles title since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977, but she let winning positions in both sets slip away as the unseeded 19-year-old Vondrousova came through 7-5 7-6 (7-2).
Konta insisted she had no regrets about the match itself despite failing to capitalise on her opportunities.
"There is nothing for me to be disappointed in or upset about," she said. "I lost a tennis match, but I also won five. I can only take the good things from that.
"Because even today, I lost the match but I did the best that I could and I'm proud of that effort. I'm proud of that achievement in itself. So I can only look forward to playing at Wimbledon and the tournaments before that."
Konta was contesting her third Grand Slam semi-final after reaching the same point at the Australian Open in 2016 and Wimbledon a year later.
The 26th seed has found her form on clay spectacularly this season, with a run to the final of the WTA event in Rome sending her confidence soaring, and she made a rip-roaring start to the semi-final by winning the opening 10 points before Vondrousova settled down in a semi-final that was played in front of a disappointingly sparse crowd on Court Simonne-Mathieu due to a packed schedule following Wednesday's washout.
They shared breaks of serve in the fourth and fifth games, with Konta staying ahead until she squandered three set-point opportunities on the Vondrousova serve at 5-3. She never recovered from a forehand-drive volley blazed horribly wide on the first and was made to pay when her opponent fought back to win four games in a row, taking her own set-point chance with a measured lob.
Konta responded in the best possible fashion as she hit a rich vein of form in the second set to break in the fourth game, and that proved enough for her to establish a lead which she never looked like relinquishing until a double-fault gifted the southpaw a way back into the contest, which headed into a tie-break.
But the tactical surety that Konta had shown during the rest of the tournament was missing.
That was to take nothing away from her opponent, who played like the more experienced competitor and clinched a place in her first Grand Slam final with a typically precise backhand drop shot.
Vondrousova, who was inspired watching Petra Kvitova win the first of her two Wimbledon titles in 2011, now has 27 wins from 32 matches since the Australian Open, which is the best record of anyone on the women's tour. She has also reached the final without dropping a set.
She is currently at a career-high ranking of 38 and will climb into the top 20 on Monday irrespective of Saturday's final outcome against Ashleigh Barty after the Australian overcame a remarkable first-set collapse to defeat 17-year-old American Amanda Anisimova 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 6-3.
The last teenager to reach the final at Roland Garros was Ana Ivanovic, who was also 19 when she finished runner-up to Justine Henin in 2007.
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