Konta flows to halt Venus progress in Melbourne

Keys, who reached her first Grand Slam semifinal past year at the Australian Open, fended off two set points in the ninth game before coming back to win the first in a tiebreaker.

Konta is Britain’s lone female left in the women’s draw after Heather Watson’s defeat on Monday, and one of two overall, joining Andy Murray in the last 64. It has been for a long time now, over a decade, so that’s where my heart is. “That’s where my heart is”.

Up 100 spots in the rankings from where she was at this point past year, the World No. 47 grabbed control of the contest from the onset and never gave the American a chance to regain the upper hand. Australia is a lovely country to have once called home and to always come visit.

The Spaniard was serving extremely well, dictating play throughout on her serve. Coto, a mind coach, has helped to transform Konta from a player who struggled on occasions to cope with pressure into a model of mental strength.

She was taking a liking to Williams’ serve as well and got her first break in the third game to lead 2-1 and then was grateful for a raft of unforced errors as she got a second break to lead 5-2. “It’s irrelevant how old she is because she’s such a champion with so much experience and knowledge”, the Briton told reporters.

She was right about the length of the match -but certainly not the result. “I have been playing and practising great and working so much”. “So in that sense I’m a bit of an anomaly”, she said.

“It was hot out there and I was playing an incredibly good player, but I felt I was playing at a good level”, she said. “I have all the respect for her in the world”.

Apart from the local verbal tick of beginning her answers with a “yeah, no”, Konta has gained more obvious benefits from her time in Australia.

Raonic, who at No. 13 has his lowest seeding at a Grand Slam tournament since Wimbledon 2013, is aiming to improve on his run to the quarterfinals here previous year, when he lost to eventual champion Novak Djokovic.

Williams’ next opponent will be an 18-year-old – she’ll face the victor of the match between Russia’s Daria Kasatkina and Croatia’s Ana Konjuh, who were both born the year before Williams’ first Australian Open.

The oldest player in the women’s draw, whose maiden Australian Open was in 1998, had high hopes coming into the season’s first major tournament after a rich vein of form late a year ago. It didn’t matter what we were doing.

“It’s not nice and, trust me, there are tears, because when I get exhausted I usually cry”. Other fines have come for audible obscenities on court as well as abuse of racket or equipment. I think in my life, the best tennis… But I was like, “No!”

“So it was just trying to keep staying with the game plan and to make things happen so that I would win or lose on my terms”.

“It just means a lot to me, to be through”, Ivanovic said. “But you learn to love it”. In an hour and eighteen minutes, Konta had defeated her idol 6-4, 6-2, moving into the second round where she will play Saisai Zheng of China.