By Canadian Press

Svitolina beats Konta to reach US Open semifinals

Sep 3, 2019 | 1:55 PM

NEW YORK — Elina Svitolina reached the semifinals for the second straight Grand Slam tournament, beating Johanna Konta 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday at the U.S. Open.

Svitolina followed up on her run to the final four at Wimbledon, where she reached the semifinals at a major for the first time before losing to eventual champion Simona Halep.

With boyfriend Gael Monfils watching the day before he is to play in the men’s quarterfinals, Svitolina chased down a volley and turned it into a cross-court winner to set up her third match point, where she finished off the match.

“I’m very, very happy the way I handled the pressure today,” Svitolina said.

The No. 5 seed will play either sixth-time champion Serena Williams or first-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist Wang Qiang, who were scheduled to play in the first night match on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

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They were to be followed by Roger Federer, who was to face unseeded Grigor Dimitrov. The 38-year-old Federer was trying to become the oldest male Grand Slam semifinalist since Jimmy Connors was 39 during his 1991 run at the U.S. Open.

The other quarterfinal matchup was 2016 U.S. Open champion Stan Wawrinka, who beat defending champion Novak Djokovic in the fourth round, against No. 5 seed Daniil Medvedev.

Svitolina and Konta exchanged three straight breaks of serve in the second set, before Svitolina ended that streak by holding for a 5-3 lead when Konta dumped a volley into the net.

It was part of a mistake-filled performance by the 16th-seeded Konta, who was trying to become the sixth active player to reach the semifinals in all four Grand Slam tournaments. But the British player committed 35 unforced errors to Svitolina’s 13, including a whopping 20-5 margin in the second set, and fell to 0-5 against the Ukrainian.

Federer’s road to the U.S. Open finals no longer includes the top-seeded Djokovic — or anyone else who ever has beaten him on a hard court, for that matter.

That’s because Federer is a combined 26-0 on that surface against the players left on his half of the bracket. He is 6-0 on hard courts against Dimitrov, 17-0 against Wawrinka and 3-0 against Medvedev.

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Brian Mahoney, The Associated Press