Britons shine in Sydney as Johanna Konta reaches final while Dan Evans fells world No 8 Dominic Thiem

Konta beat Eugenie Bouchard to book her place in the final at the Sydney International while Evans secured the biggest win of his career after overcoming Thiem in the quarters

Konta has enjoyed rapid success with her new coaching team (AFP/Getty Images)

With the start of the Australian Open only four days away, Britain’s run of success is showing no signs of coming to an end. This week it has been the turn of Johanna Konta, Dan Evans and Jamie Murray to blaze a trail, with all three Britons still going strong at the Sydney International.

Konta is through to the final after thumping Eugenie Bouchard 6-2, 6-2 in just 68 minutes, while Evans enjoyed the biggest win of his career when he beat the world No 8, Dominic Thiem, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the quarter-finals. Murray and his partner, Bruno Soares, are through to the doubles semi-finals after beating the Germans Florian Mayer and Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-4.

This year could hardly have started better for Konta, especially after her 2016 season ended with a parting of the ways from her coach, Esteban Carril, and the shocking death of her mind coach, Juan Coto.

She has enjoyed rapid success with her new coaching team of Wim Fissette and Andrew Fitzpatrick. Having reached the semi-finals of her first tournament of the year in China last week, she is now through to the third final of her career.

The win over Bouchard, who had beaten her in their only previous meeting at Wimbledon last summer, was every bit as emphatic as the scoreline might suggest.

Although the weather had cooled down after the high temperatures of previous days, Konta’s ball-striking was hotter than ever. Bouchard, the 2014 Wimbledon runner-up, had no answer to the 25-year-old Briton’s powerful ground strokes as her serve was broken six times.

Konta was born in Sydney and spent the first 13 years of her life in the city, while the Olympic Park, where this tournament is staged, used to be her training base. Her sister, who lives in Sydney, has been in the crowd watching her matches.

The world No 10 has been questioned all week about her Australian roots but insisted: “My home is Great Britain and my heart lies there. I feel very proud when I'm representing Great Britain.”

Evans put on a masterful display against Dominic Thiem (Getty Images)

In Friday’s final Konta will face Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, the world No 3, who has won both their previous meetings. “She's been at the top of the game for so many years,” Konta said. “I can't remember when she wasn't in the top 10 or five. That says so much about her as a competitor more than anything else.”

Evans had lost all four of his previous meetings with top 10 opponents but put on a masterful display to beat Thiem, who reached six finals, winning four of them, in his breakthrough season in 2016.

The 23-year-old Austrian, who also made the semi-finals of last year’s French Open, has a superb one-handed backhand which he used to good effect in sweeping through the first set, in which he dropped only two points on his own serve.

Evans had made a similarly slow start in the previous round against Marcel Granollers, but once again he quickly turned the match around. The world No 67 appeared to take Thiem by surprise with his aggressive ball-striking, frequent forays to the net and smart volleys.

Konta is through to the final at the Sydney International (Getty)

Although Thiem recovered from 0-3 down at the start of the second set to level at 3-3 - at which point Evans was given a code violation for hitting a ball away in frustration – the Briton retook control by breaking serve again in the next game and then serving out for the set.

Thiem had needed two hours and 40 minutes to beat Gastao Elias the previous evening and the Austrian quickly faded in the face of Evans’ onslaught in the deciding set. The Briton went 4-0 up and eventually secured victory with his sixth break of serve of the match.

“I played the first set on his terms,” Evans said afterwards. “I tried to come forward a bit more in the second set. I didn’t have much to lose. I just hung in there and came forward.”

Agreeing that it was “probably my best win”, Evans added: “In the end I thought he didn’t really know how to get the ball past me. I thought I put my game on him pretty well.”

Evans, who reached his only previous semi-final in Zagreb three years ago, should climb to around No 55 in next week’s updated world ranking list and even higher if he wins his semi-final on Friday against the world No 48, Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov, who won their only previous meeting at Wimbledon three summers ago.

Murray and Soares, who finished 2016 as the world No 1 doubles pair, clearly enjoy this time of year. The Scot and the Brazilian, who next face the Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, won the Sydney and Australian Open titles in only their second and third tournaments together last year.