Johanna Konta has steadied to hold off a late-surging fightback from Aussie wildcard Ajla Tomljanovic to reach the Brisbane International quarterfinals on Tuesday night.
It was the second times in as many matches the Brit rallied from a set down to advance after taking down US Open finalist Madison Keys in the first round.
“To have these two three-set matches is a really good thing for me because both matches were full of all sorts of difficult situations and parts in the match where I really had to be physically or mentally, or both, just really tough out there,” Konta said.
The 26-year-old awaits the winner of No.3 seed Elina Svitolina or Croat Ana Konjuh for a place in the semifinals.
She made 23 unforced errors in the opening set against Tomljanovic, which lasted for nearly an hour, but eventually found her groove against the world’s 118th-ranked player.
The crowd on Pat Rafter Arena – which included Tomljanovic’s boyfriend Nick Kyrgios, who she has been practising with – was clearly on her side after she broke the 2017 Wimbledon semifinalist four times in the first set.
However, fifth seed Konta came out firing in the second and was up 5-0 when Tomljanovic took a medical timeout to work on an issue with her right adductor.
She returned to win the next game and broke Konta again late in the third set as she served for the match, coming from 5-2 down to within a point of parity, only to fall heartbreakingly short of what would have been a stirring victory.
“I definitely didn’t start off playing the way I wanted to. I was a little bit loose in my game and I couldn’t quite find my rhythm,” Konta said.
“That is also a credit to her. She came out playing, I think, very well and was taking a lot of time away, hitting big. So it just took a bit of adjusting for me.”