Paris: Sloane Stephens never stood a chance.
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Johanna Konta produced a remarkably dominant performance against last year’s runner-up, winning 6-1, 6-4 Tuesday to become the first British woman to reach the French Open semi-finals since Jo Durie in 1983.
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The match was so one-sided that the 26th-seeded Konta won all but one point on her serve in the second set — and the one that she lost was a double fault.
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Konta served six aces, stepped into the court to crush winners off second serves and never gave the seventh-seeded Stephens time to find her rhythm or groove.
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“To play one of the best players in the world and then play at the level I did, I feel really proud of myself,” Konta told the crowd.
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The match ended in a brisk 71 minutes with the late-arriving Parisian spectators still filing into their wooden seats inside Court Philippe Chatrier as it was finishing.
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“There is not much you can do when someone is playing like that,” Stephens said. “I didn’t get a chance to really get into the match. … She executed a good game plan, and that was that.”
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Konta’s semi-final opponent will be either 19-year-old Marketa Vondrousova or 31st-seeded Petra Martic, who were playing later on Court Suzanne Lenglen in the first Grand Slam quarter-final for both players.
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Konta, who also beat Stephens recently during her run to the Italian Open final, improved to 3-0 in her career against the American.
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Fans attempted to motivate Stephens with shouts of, “Come on Sloane,” and “Just keep working,” but the 2017 US Open champion struggled to deal with Konta’s pace and highly aggressive shots.
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Konta hit 25 winners — more than twice as many as Stephens — and they were evenly distributed between her forehand (9) and backhand (8), with a few volleys mixed in, too.
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Early in the second set, Stephens was stretched out wide and replied with a desperation forehand that landed on the line. Stephens’ must have thought her shot was going out, because she stood still and didn’t even attempt to run down Konta’s reply.
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“I don’t even remember what that point was,” Stephens said.
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On Konta’s first match point, Stephens hit a forehand that was called in by the line judge. But the chair umpire came down and overruled the call after inspecting the mark on the clay.
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Konta has now reached the semi-finals in three of the four Grand Slam tournaments after the Australian Open in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2017. She has never progressed to a final at a major but if she plays this way again, she’ll be tough to beat.
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In the men’s draw there was frustration for the fans as both Rafael Nadal’s match against Kei Nishikori and Roger Federer’s clash with fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka were halted just as a thrilling climax looked to be in store.
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Spaniard Nadal was cruising 6-1, 6-1, 4-2 when the threat of thunder hauled them off Court Philippe Chatrier, just after Federer and Wawrinka rushed for cover with their match tantalisingly poised. It was all level in the fourth set at 3-3, with Federer leading 2-1 in sets.
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