Birthday win for Johanna Konta as she continues brilliant Italian Open run

WTA Tour
A happy Johanna Konta

Johanna Konta continued her excellent clay-court season as she beat Marketa Vondrousova to reach the Italian Open semi-finals.

The British No 1 endured a tough first few months of the campaign as she came close to slipping out of the world top 50, but then found form on the red dirt in Morocco where she reached the final.

After exiting the round of 32 at the Madrid Open, Konta has regained her rhythm in Rome as she beat the likes of Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens en route to the quarter-finals.

Vondrousova, who upset third seed Simona Halep in the second round, gave her a good workout, but she still came out on top with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory in just under two hours.

Konta broke twice in the first set, but her Russian opponent returned the favour to draw level at one set each.

However, three breaks of serve in the deciding set earned Konta victory on her 28th birthday and her reward is a semi-final clash against world No 4 Kiki Bertens, who advanced after world No 1 Naomi Osaka withdrew due to injury.

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