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Reply to "Heather Watson, Laura Robson, Johanna Konta and Emma Raducanu"

British number one Johanna Konta reached the third round of the Australian Open with an impressive win over China's Zheng Saisai in Melbourne.

 

Konta, ranked 47th in the world - 36 places higher than her opponent, won 6-2 6-3 and will next face Czech Denisa Allertova (ranked 66th), who beat Sabine Lisicki.

 

The Sydney-born Briton had never won a match in the main draw at the Australian Open before this year.

 

She and Zheng were meeting for the second time, with Konta having won in French Open qualifying two years ago, and she moved 3-1 ahead thanks to some aggressive returning.

 

Zheng pressed hard but could not convert a handful of break points and dropped serve once again as Konta took the first set in 37 minutes.

 

Some wayward volleying saw Konta fail to capitalise on two early chances in the second set, but the relentless pressure of her groundstrokes told two games later as she again broke for 3-1.

 

She finally dropped serve, to love, while serving for the match at 5-1 before wrapping up victory after one hour and 22 minutes.

 

"There were definitely some nerves at the end," said Konta.

 

"I was very happy I was able to keep it together, there's so much tension out there. I'm just happy I was able to deal with it the best I could and come through."

El Loro
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