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

Britain's Johanna Konta reached her second successive Grand Slam fourth round with victory over Czech Denisa Allertova at the Australian Open.

 

Konta, 24, won 6-2 6-2 at Melbourne Park to match her run to the last 16 at last year's US Open.

 

She is the first British woman to make the fourth round of the Australian Open since Jo Durie and Anne Hobbs in 1987.

 

Konta goes on to face Russia's 21st seed Ekaterina Makarova, who beat Czech ninth seed Karolina Pliskova 6-3 6-2.

 

Quick-fire win for Konta

A first-serve percentage of 72%, 12 break points created and none faced told a story of complete domination by Konta in the opening match on Hisense Arena.

 

She broke serve at the first opportunity and fired down an ace 29 minutes later to seal the first set as Allertova, ranked 19 places lower at 66 in the world, struggled to keep pace at the other end of the court.

 

The Czech had won their only previous match at last year's French Open but Konta is an altogether different prospect these days and broke for the third time at the start of the second set.

 

Konta continued to dominate on serve and wrapped up a one-sided win after just 63 minutes.

 

"It was not easy out there," said the Sydney-born Briton. "She's an incredibly tough opponent and I knew I had to run down each ball and fight for every point. It definitely wasn't easy."

 

Allertova, 22, revealed she had been hampered by a leg injury, but said: "She played well on every point, she has got much better since we met at the French Open.

 

"She is going up and up and is such a good player."

El Loro
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