Section:GDN 1N PaGe:48 Edition Date:190830 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 29/8/2019 21:23 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Friday 30 Aug ust 2019
(^48) Sport
Tennis US Open
Evans through
to face Federer
after beating
ragged Pouille
Dan Evans has flirted with grand
deeds in New York before and, after
beating the out-of-sorts Frenchman,
Lucas Pouille, in four sets yesterday , he
enters the third round of the US Open
with a renewed sense of purpose.
He has always had the talent. This
summer he has had the results, win-
ning half a million dollars and 13
matches on the Tour. At 29 he also has
the battle-hardened maturity to take
his sport seriously and the prize for his
endeavours over three hours and 10
minutes under a beating sun on Court
12 to win a rain-delayed encounter 6-4,
6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-4, is a match against his
new best friend, Roger Federer, today
- an opportunity he blew at Flushing
Meadows on his second visit in 2013.
That season, when off -court turmoil
was as likely to unseat him as a fore-
hand, Evans played quite brilliantly
after coming through qualifying. He
beat Kei Nishikori and a still-danger-
ous Bernard Tomic before coming
desperately close to getting past the
experienced Tommy Robredo, who
was making an impressive come-
back. Robredo had a far bigger win
in the next round: over Federer. That
could have been Evans’s “night in the
Garden”.
Similarly, in 2016 Evans found
form at the right time but did not
cash in. After beating Rajeev Ram and
Alexander Zverev (before the German
prodigy properly began his climb up
the rankings), he had the world No 3
Stan Wawrinka at his mercy when he
mis -hit a smash at match point in the
fourth -set tie -break. He then failed
to hold off the Swiss in the fi fth set
and Wawrinka went on to beat Novak
Djokovic in the fi nal.
So the mountain is not always asKonta’s wait ends
with quick win
over Gasparyan
Kevin Mitchell
Flushing MeadowsDan Evans celebrates
winning a point in
his second -round winIt was not until 5:34pm on Wednesday ,
six and a half hours later than planned,
that Johanna Konta made it out of the
locker room and on to the court for her
second-round match against Russia’s
Margarita Gasparyan but that small
victory was short-lived. On a day of
showers the players were quickly
ushered off and play for the day on
the US Open’s outside courts was
cancelled.
These are the types of curveballs
players must deal with over two weeks
of a grand slam tournament. Her cher-
ished routines broken, Konta demon-
strated her ability to overcome such
circumstances when she returned
yesterday and pummelled Margarita
Gasparyan 6-1, 6-0, producing one of
her best performances of the year.
After losing the opening game of
the match, Konta won 12 successive
games and will face either Ekaterina
Alexandrova or the 33rd seed Shuai
Zhang in the third round.
Gasparyan is part of a dying breed
of female players who still employ a
one-handed backhand and the open-
ing game of the encounter suggested
the 24 year-old could be a nuisance as
her guile neutralised Konta’s penetra-
tive power. But as onlookers admired
its artistry, Konta saw the Russian’s
backhand only as a weakness and she
set about breaking it down.
After surviving a tight opening hold
to level the match at 1-1, Konta was
vicious and brutal. It was one of those
performances where nothing went
wrong. She held her position on the
baseline as she pierced the Russian’s
defence from both wings. The 16th
seed broke to love with a crosscourt
backhand winner to lead 2-1, then
again with booming forehand return
for 4-1, quickly consolidating to take
the fi rst set 6-1.
Unfl inching aggression has always
been Konta’s calling card but she has
frequently put her 2019 resurgence
down to a new willingness to play
with more variety and to recognise
the opponent across the net.
This was evident in how she broke
down Gasparyan’s backhand but alsoin select moments during the match.
As she neared victory, Konta broke by
drawing the Russian into the net with
a low backhand slice, then fi nished
the point with a confi dent backhand
volley.
Konta took 54 minutes to complete
the job. She fi nished with 24 winners
and only 12 unforced errors and surely
the feeling that another deep grand
slam run could be on the cards.
“It’s never straightforward and they
were tricky conditions. Once I adapted
to her game I think the match-ups
worked in my favour. I played the game
a little bit better,” Konta said.
“I’m pleased to have come through.
Yesterday was a long day and I’m just
pleased to complete the match. It’s
never easy.”
Andrea Petkovic produced the big-
gest upset so far as she defeated the
sixth seed Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-4. If
Konta is the archetype of the rigid
tunnel vision that tennis players are
often taught to emulate, focusing only
on their routines, their processes and
nothing else, Petkovic is her polar
opposite.
The German burst onto the tour in
2011 dancing after her many victories
and oozing charisma as she rose to the
top 10. Away from the court, Petkovic
moonlights as a journalist and the
last time she spent an extended stay
in New York she spent the tennis off -
season working on her book in the
secluded town of Woodstock.
“I’m used to tennis to sweat and
have adrenaline and all these things,”
she said. “And in writing you just kind
of like feel everything inside you and it
hurts your soul and your heart.
“And I didn’t like the feeling, but
then, in the end, it’s a really nice out-
come and nice feeling. And I’m very
excited about that, that I have some-
thing on the side that helps me to cope
with the tennis life.”
Naomi Osaka, the top seed and
defending champion, moved on
without the visible nerves of her fi rst-
round match against Anna Blinkova,
recovering from a break down in the
second set to defeat Poland’s Magda
Linette 6-2, 6-4. Watching on from
the players’ box were Osaka’s fellow
Nike endorsees, Kobe Bryant and Colin
Kaepernick.Tumaini Carayol
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