Australian Open : WTA: Johanna Konta- Shuai Zhang

 

I have nothing but admiration for how Shuai Zhang has performed at this tournament, but she looks on borrowed time and the Chinese player is unlikely to get as lucky as she did against Madison Keys in R4, when she was on the rack before the US youngster picked up a leg injury. Zhang had no answer before that to the powerful groundstrokes of Keys and I suspect she will be asked similar questions today.
 

I spoke about Zhang's dismal grand slam record prior to the last fortnight ahead of her third round match up with Varvara Lepchenko................

 

Shuai Zhang would have looked at Lepchenko's form here with envy, as before this year she had never won in Melbourne, infact ,she was 0-14 at slams, that for a player who has been ranked as high as 30 !  To say it was  abit of a surprise when she beat Simona Halep and Alize Cornet both in straight sets , is a major understatement  and she must have been as shocked as anyone else ! The two have met before, but on grass, with Lepchenko winning in three sets .
 

Huge game for both, I think that Lephenko is the better player and that Zhang will be feeling very tired having had to pre qualify and already having had five matches under her belt and she is just not used to that number of singles back to back at anything close to this level. She made reference to this in interview after her win over the Frenchwoman ............

Q. How long did it take for you to calm down from the first-round win and decide that you were ready to kind of continue to push through the tournament?

ZHANG SHUAI: Yeah, when the last final round of quallies, I'm so exciting. Also when I saw the draw, I'm exciting, too.

Like when I won the first round, very, very exciting. I think in my life the number one exciting, yeah. But right now I feeling so tired, yeah.

This is huge for her and I think she will give everything, but I an not sure how much more there is left.

 

She won that comfortably, but not for the first time in Melbourne, was on her way out against Keys, with veteran Virginie Razzano serving for the match against her in qualifying and MK even had chances on one leg in the third set !

I spoke about Konta's hugely improved form, especially on hard courts ahead of her straight set defeat of Denisa Allertova ...........

 

British player Johanna Konta had a fantastic 2015 and her ranking was inside the top 50 coming into this event, after starting last year at 150 . She was born in Australia to Hungarian parents, so lots of countries with claims on her,  she has lived in the UK since her early teens, but plenty of support in the country of her birth.This is her first time in the main draw here and her ranking will receive another major boost. She ended last season on fire on hard courts, playing 23 matches in her last four tournaments, including seven at the US Open where she made R4 (after qualifying) winning two others and posting wins over Halep, Azarenka and Muguruza. She lost in the first round of her first two this year, but it might be that she was a little "leggy" after "working her butt off" (her expression)  in the off season. She played very solidly in beating Venus Williams in R1 and followed up with the minimum of fuss in R2 against an up and coming Chinese player.  Denisa Allertova won their only previous meeting at last yerais French Open in three long sets but Konta has clearly improved and is betetr equipped, especially mentally to take advantage of all the break points she had that day, also this is not clay (stating the obvious comment of the day !) and I expect her to win, maybe with a degree of comfort.
 

She eased home there and then beat Ekaterina Makarova in three tough sets in R4 after losing her opener, Makarova's record in Melbourne compares favourably with almost anyone ( R4 in singles for the sixth straight year and two doubles finals here to her name) and to win that the hard way, highlighted the huge physical and especially mental strides that Konta has made. Along with Keys, this will be the biggest serve that Zhang will have faced and we can expect, like in the first set there, a lot of quick points for the British player, this will be Zheng's 8th singles match in Melbourne and signs are there that she is feeling it and the huge pressure of suddenly realising what she has achieved after so many years of despair at slams and it is catching up on her.