By Chris Oddo | Wednesday August 1, 2018
Johanna Konta backed up her stunning upset of Serena Williams with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Sofia Kenin of the U.S. on Wednesday at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose. The British No.1 needed just 70 minutes to dispatch the 19-year-old World No.68, saving both break points she faced and throwing in nine aces while dropping just 16 points on serve.
Konta, the 2016 champion at the event that was formerly known as the Bank of the West Classic, has dropped just six games in two matches and has yet to be broken.
"I kind of approached today as a separate challenge," Konta said, according to WTATennis.com, after the match. "I just played the challenge of the day and the opponent that I had, and really just tried to do the best that I can with that."
Konta finished with 20 winners against 13 unforced errors to set up a quarterfinal with rising Belgian Elise Mertens. Mertens, who is working this week with new coach Dieter Kindlmann, routed American Ashley Kratzer, 6-2, 6-0.
Konta won the pair’s only previous meeting at Miami this year in straight sets, but the fourth-seeded 22-year-old currently outranks Konta by 33 spots in the WTA rankings.
Victoria Azarenka continued her comeback in the night session with a 6-1, 6-0 thrashing of lucky loser Anna Blinkova to set up a quarterfinal with American Danielle Collins. Azarenka moves into just her second quarterfinal of the season and improves her overall record to 11-7. She was slated to face top-seeded Garbine Muguruza today, but the Spaniard pulled out with an arm injury.
Azarenka said she was looking forward to the challenge and was disappionted to hear that Muguruza wouldn't make it when she heard the news early on Wednesday morning.
Collins defeated Belarus’ Vera Lapko, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 to reach her fourth quarterfinal of the season. She has never faced Azarenka before.