It has been a highly impressive run from Britain’s Johanna Konta at the US Open 2019. Highly impressive. She had a little wobble in the second set of her opening match, but other than that, she has looked right on her game.
Playing even better than she has played before, perhaps. There has definitely been a shift in her game, which was unexpected as she wasn’t carrying form ahead of the tournament. Can she take her New York journey further? She meets third seed Koarlina Pliskova for a place in the final eight.
Johanna Konta v Karolina PLiskova Odds*
Karolina Pliskova 4/7
Johanna Konta 11/8
* (betting odds taken from bet365 on August 30th, 2019 at 11:06 pm)
Can Konta beat Pliskova?
It has been some form from Johanna Konta. After her 2-1 opening win over Daria Kasatkina, Konta has been immense. She dropped just one game in her victory over Margarita Gasparyan in the second round. It was rapid-fire inch-perfect stuff that Konta was playing. It was there again for her as she beat 33rd see Shuai Zhang 6-2 6-3 in their third-round duel.
So Konta appears to have found her consistency, which is brilliant. The other notable aspects of her performances at the US Open 2019 is that she has been right on from the get-go. She is starting matches very strongly and that is giving her such a strong platform. She has dropped only four first-set games in the tournament.
The other is that she is mixing up her shots to a degree that she hasn’t done before. It is going great for her, can she take it further? With the win over Zhang, Konta has equalled her best-ever finish at the US Open. She has been to the semifinals of the French Open and the quarters of Wimbledon this year.
Head to head
The head to head form is all with Karolina Pliskova though in their previous meetings. She is 6-1 up over Konta. That’s a pretty substantial figure. The one win that Konta took over the Czech payer was in 2016. This will be just the second time that they have met on the hardcourt though, Pliskova winning the previous one in three sets at Indian Wells in 2016.
Can Pliskova deliver as favourite?
Pliskvoa, who is one of the front runners to land the title at Flushing Meadows, hasn’t had the smoothest of runs at the US Open this year. She won her opening match in straight sets, but each set victory was on a tiebreak. Pliskova did breeze through her second match, but then in the third round found a stubborn opponent in Ons Jabeur.
Plsikova raced through the first set 6-1 against Jabeur, but then lost her rhythm against her Tunisian opponent. Jabuer ranked 54th in the world scrapped back to take the second set and then narrowly lost out in the final set 6-4. So Pliskova has been made to work hard. But the other side of that, of course, is that the Czech player has still progressed. She possesses a great service game and goes as the favourite for the match win.
Konta v Pliskova Prediction
Pliskova is a tough customer but right now Konta is playing tennis of her life. You can physically see that her confidence is up, she is mixing up her shots beautifully and while the head to head isn’t in her favour, the 11/8 underdog quote on Konta winning outright is a tempter* (betting odds taken from bet365 on August 30th, 2019 at 11:06 pm)
