Konta survives Vekic in Centre Court epic

Johanna Konta overcame Donna Vekic in a fabulous Centre Court battle at Wimbledon to record her best ever showing at the All England Club.

The No.6 seed battled for three hours and 10 minutes before sealing victory over the Croat, celebrating amid the deafening crowd noise after sealing a 7-6(4) 4-6 10-8 victory.

It was sweet revenge for Konta, who fell to Vekic in a similarly-tight WTA Nottingham final just a few weeks ago.

“Definitely one of the most epic matches I have been a part of,” Konta said.

“I think both myself and Donna played very well. Both of us deserved to win. I think it was one of those matches where it was going to just be decided at the very last minute.

“I feel very fortunate to have come through that. So, yeah, it was a great battle to be a part of.”

That quality was evident in the stats; the two women combined for 97 winners and just 45 unforced errors.

The Brit next faces Greece’s Maria Sakkari, who came from a set and a break down to beat Kristyna Pliskova.

Vekic looked the stronger of the pair in the first set, breaking in the eighth game for a 5-3 lead and holding a pair of set points at 40-15 when she was serving for it.

Yet Konta didn’t buckle, breaking straight back as part of a three-game run that saw her wrest the momentum back.

As she did in the Nottingham final, she took the first set, only for Vekic, like she did those few weeks ago, to hit back.

She was helped by Konta’s extraordinary error rate on the return – a television graphic revealed that by the end of the second set, Konta had erred 25 times on returns to Vekic’s six.

That's… a lot. pic.twitter.com/4sV0dM4QCA

— Tumaini Carayol (@tumcarayol) July 5, 2017

Perhaps those notoriously generous Wimbledon statisticians were at work again – according to the tournament stat sheet, Konta committed just two unforced return errors for the entire match.

In the third, Konta and Vekic settled into a dominant service hold pattern – in not one of the first 10 games did the receiver get beyond 15.

Yet Vekic, despite serving second and playing catch up, always looked the more likely. In both the 13th and the 17th games she held break points which, if converted, would have given her a chance to serve for the match.

Konta, however, always found a way to land a powerful first serve or strike a lusty blow from the baseline to keep her gallant opponent at bay.

And in the 18th and final game, the Brit was finally given an opening.

Vekic sent a forehand long to hand Konta her first match point – and saved it with an ace. But when Konta brought up a second chance with a forehand winner, she converted when the Croat sent a forehand into the net.

“I feel I competed well. I feel that even when the momentum shifted slightly to her side of the court, I still was competitive, and I still felt I kept my mind quite light and just really tried to keep going,” Konta reflected.

“However long it took, I wanted to be out there competing for every single minute of it.”