Marketa Vondrousova shocked an under par Johanna Konta as the Czech Republican won 7-6(5) 6-4 to make the third round.
The world number 54 made a stunning start to the contest as she took a double break lead at 3-0 in the first set as she punished Konta’s errors. The Brit came back into the match and even had set points towards the end of the set as she battled and fought her way through the match. A stunning forehand from Vondrousova sealed the first set tiebreak in a long and exhausting battle, which clearly had an effect on both players.
The second set saw Konta have the early advantage as she used her backhand to dictate her 18 year old opponent all over the court. The 11th seed received her awards as she broke for a 3-2 lead and started to turn a corner in the contest as she grew in confidence. After the seventh game, Vondrousova decided to take an extended medical time-out, which worked in her favour. The Czech Republican won the last three games of the match to grab the contest in 2 hours and 15 minutes.
A lot of similarities in the Bernarda Pera for Konta, who needs to quickly find form as she has to defend the Miami Open title next week in Florida. However it was a decent victory for Vondrousova who will play another young teenager in Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian secured a 6-4 6-3 win over a returning Svetlana Kuznetsova in 1 hour and 13 minutes as she won 29 out of 40 points on her first serve.
In other results 22nd seed Elise Mertens also crashed out after losing 4-6 6-3 6-3 to Qiang Wang of China. The Belgian has now only won two matches since her Australian Open Semi-Final performance. Wang will now play 14th seed Kristina Mladenovic, who edged past Australian Sam Stosur 7-5 7-5.
