Australian Open: Johanna Konta reaches quarter-finals

Konta had to come from behind in a nail-biting baseline battle on Margaret Court Arena, lasting three hours and four minutes, the second longest women’s match so far.

She added, with emotion and not a little exhaustion: “Goodness gracious: you guys made so much noise I felt like the stadium was full”.

It was an impressive win against a player who has always enjoyed Melbourne Park, making the fourth round or better in her last six outings, including quarter-finals in 2012 and 2013.

Kerber, who had a stellar 2015 but underachieved at the Grand Slams, eased past Beck who fell apart in the second set after pressing her compatriot hard in the first. Konta has racked up 52 winners in her last two matches and has had 22 or less unforced errors in her first three matches.

The rise and rise of British No1 and world No47 continued with yet another ground-breaking victory for Johanna Konta at the Australian Open on Monday evening.

Born in Sydney to Hungarian parents, Konta relocated to the United Kingdom in 2005, when she was 14.

Having won in Australia this week, she was asked this week whether she would consider returning Down Under.

Catch-up: Watch highlights of Murray and Konta’s matches from 13:00 GMT on BBC Two.

Sears was given the all-clear to fly home last night and knowing that his father-in-law would soon be back with his family, Murray made a decision to play on.

“He’s a tough player, for sure”, said the Swiss star.

Konta also beat former world number one Venus Williams in round one.

Tomic has lost all three of the pair’s previous meetings, including at the Davis Cup in September, and the world No 2 will be favourite to advance despite his focus on the first major tournament of the year has been tested, first by the impending birth of his first child next month and then on Saturday, when his father-in-law Nigel Sears collapsed.

She is estimated to have accrued close to £600,000 in prize money before her new-found fame at the Australian Open.

Federer was delighted with the achievement. “I don’t know Jo Durie or Sue Barker or any of the others who’ve been this far”, she said, “but I’ll definitely make a concerted effort to find out more about them”.

“I’m not really thinking about accumulating “wow” moments, just solid experiences”. Jimmy Connors is next-best on the list with 233, ahead of Andre Agassi on 224. Later, it was a magnificent crosscourt backhand that kissed the line that enabled the Brit to maintain her advantage before serving out the set to force a decider.

Milos Raonic beat French Open champion Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. “Trust me, those four minutes count”.

His prospects of finally clinching the title “will probably be in the hands of Novak Djokovic”, says Kevin Mitchell of The Guardian.

It was “a truly masterful display of all-round high-grade tennis”, enthuses Mitchell.

This is a matchup between the two Cinderellas of the tournament.

All she is thinking of is Shuai Zhang from Tianjin in north-eastern China who celebrated her 27th birthday five days ago and a win over the struggling American 15th seed Madison Keys after midnight on Monday, when only the diehards stayed. She has said: ‘If I had a house I would mortgage it to see U2.