Jo Konta suffers Wimbledon quarter final exit to end British hopes

Jo Konta has been defeated in straight sets in the quarter final of Wimbledon at the hands of Czech Barbora Strycova.

Despite Konta having an early lead and looking comfortable, the unseeded veteran pulled of an impressive comeback to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final in her 53rd main draw appearance.

Jo Konta was bidding to reach her second semi final at Wimbledon after she did so in 2017 losing to Venus Williams 6-4 6-2. And she looked to be well on track to make the semi final as she came out to break the Czech’s serve instantly and gain a 2-0 lead. The 19th seed served confidentiality at first to take a 4-1 lead, but here it all went downhill for the Australian born Brit.

A more relaxed looking Strycova started to find some rhythm and broke back after a couple of unforced errors from the Konta racket. Holding serve the Czech got the first set back to 4-4 and went on to force a tiebreak.

Konta fell a mini-break behind early in the tiebreak, but was able to win it back. But serving a 6-5 Konta put a seemingly easy forehand winner into the net to hand her opponent the first set.

Konta never really recovered from the missed forehand, and was visibly frustrated when she found herself at 2-0 down at the beginning of the second set.

Losing her only previous Wimbledon quarter final to Czech compatriot and two time champion Petra Kvitova in 2014, Strycova now looked determined to make her first ever Slam semi-final and at 4-1 she was handed an opportunity to go a double break up when a desperate Konta tried a serve and volley tactic for the first time in the match only to see a passing shot glide past her to give Strycova break point. A long backhand from the Brit gave her opponent the chance to  serve for the match.

Two successive backhand errors from Konta saw Strycova into the semi final, where she will face bookies’ favourite Serena Williams. Having met three times Williams has never dropped a set against the world number 54.

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