Saturday 4 May 2019 16:01, UK
Johanna Konta reached the first clay-court final of her career with a straight-sets victory over Ajla Tomljanovic at the Morocco Open in Rabat.
The British No 1 beat Australian fourth-seed Tomljanovic 6-2 7-6 (9-7) to move to within one match of a first tournament win in two years.
Before this week, Konta had not won more than two consecutive WTA main-draw clay matches.
However, in this last-four encounter Konta's serve was rarely threatened and she secured victory over last year's runner-up with a second match point in the second-set tie-break.
Seventh-seed Konta will now face Maria Sakkari in the final. The Greek, seeded sixth, won 6-4 6-4 against Belgium's Alison Van Uytvanck to book her place in the final.
Two early breaks from a confident-looking Konta secured a 4-1 lead in the opening set of her last-four clash with Tomljanovic.
The Australian then clawed one of them back before the British No 1 immediately restored the double-break with some punishing service returns.
Tomljanovic upped the ante in the second set as her unforced error count came down but Konta remained focused.
The 27-year-old held her serve with conviction and marched on to wrap up victory.
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