Elina Svitolina is the highest-ranked player left in the US Open draw
Wednesday 4 September 2019 06:53, UK
Johanna Konta's hopes of becoming the first British woman to reach the semi-finals at all four Grand Slam events in the Open era were dashed by Elina Svitolina at the US Open on Tuesday.
Svitolina overcame Konta 6-4 6-4 to make it through to her second successive Grand Slam semi-final and she will now face the winner of the match between Serena Williams, continuing her quest for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title, and China's Wang Qiang.
The 24-year-old Svitolina, winner of all four of her previous meetings with Konta, extended her dominance over the Briton by wrapping up the match in one hour and 40 minutes.
"I think we were both striking the ball well, it was quite even, I'm just very happy with the way I handled the pressure. I was just taking one point at a time and trying to stay calm," said Svitolina.
"For all the Ukrainians it is not so easy when you are growing up, you don't have much opportunity to travel and that's why we are so determined when we get them."
It was nip and tuck in sunny conditions on Arthur Ashe with fifth seed Svitolina keeping in touch with the Briton during some lung-busting rallies before nudging 3-2 ahead. But the 16th seed stayed calm and composed, benefiting from a Svitolina error to hit back.
The Ukrainian, who has reached a career-high No 3, piled on the pressure for a second break of serve and then successfully consolidated it for a 5-3 advantage.
Konta, who was the first British player since Jo Durie in 1983 to go this deep at Flushing Meadows, held in the next game and then saved a first set point thanks to an instinctive angled drop volley, but she was unable to prevent her attempted backhand sliced return sailing long to hand Svitolina the opener.
With celebrity superfan Tom Hiddleston once again in her corner, Konta was in need of some inspiration after falling 3-2 down in the next set. And she provided it with a moment of genius thanks to a sumptuous drop shot that enabled her to level things up.
However, in a mirror-image of the first set, Svitolina struck back as Konta's error-count mounted along with growing frustration.
The British No 1 saved two match points during her next service game, but Svitolina continued her aggressive tactic on serve to end Konta's hopes.
She followed her first appearance in the final four of a major at Wimbledon in July by getting right back there at Flushing Meadows.
