Australian Open: Johanna Konta beats Denisa Allertova to become first British woman through to fourth round in 29 years

Johanna Konta beat Denisa Allertova 6-2, 6-2

Johanna Konta celebrates her victory over Denisa Allertova (Getty Images)

Johanna Konta is through to the fourth round of the Australian Open after another emphatic victory here at the year’s opening Grand Slam event. The British No 1, who knocked out Venus Williams in the first round, beat the Czech Republic’s Denisa Allertova 6-2, 6-2 to reach the last 16 for the second Grand Slam tournament in succession.

Konta, who was ranked outside the world’s top 150 at the start of last year, is projected to climb 11 places to No 36 in the wake of her latest victory, with further progress to follow if she goes on to make the quarter-finals. In the fourth round she will face Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova, who reached the semi-finals here 12 months ago and the quarter-finals in 2012 and 2013. Konta won their only previous meeting at Eastbourne last summer.

Allertova had come out on top when she met Konta at last year’s French Open, but the Briton has made great progress since then and started the day as the clear favourite. With rain again in the air the match was played under a closed roof in Hisense Arena, the third show court here.

Although Allertova has been in good form, the Czech suffered an injury in her first-round match here and came on court with her left thigh heavily strapped. It was soon clear that the injury was hampering her movement and Konta quickly took advantage.

Konta, serving well and hitting her ground strokes with power and precision, took control from the back of the court from the start. Allertova did not have a single break point all match. Konta broke serve in the opening game, underlined her domination with another break to go 5-2 up and served out for the set in just 29 minutes, completing the job with an ace.

The Briton did not let up in the second set, breaking again in the first and seventh games before securing her victory in just 64 minutes when Allertova missed a half-volley.

“I'm obviously very pleased,” Konta said afterwards. “I'm more happy with just how I was able to handle the situation out there. It wasn't easy. Obviously the court plays differently when the roof is closed. She's a very tough player. I'm happy I was able to really just hold down and take care of things on my end and just keep fighting.”

Konta was so focused on her task that she was not even aware of Allertova’s thigh problem. “From my perspective you don't really try to pay attention to those sorts of things, because they are not really productive to me staying in the present and me just trying to take care of things my end,” Konta said. “We have seen time and time again that even with injuries players can still be very dangerous and can still very much close out matches.”

The Briton said that having played Allertova at Roland Garros last year had been helpful. “I think it just makes you more aware,” she said. “It maybe just gives you a better idea of what kind of ball you'll be receiving from the other end just because you have played that player before.

“Also, I was definitely prepared for a tough match. She's a very good competitor and she stays very calm and just really gets on with things. So I was very prepared to stay out there as long as I needed to. I was just very happy that I was able to take advantage of certain key points in the match and keep my momentum going.”

Konta described Makarova, her next opponent, as “an incredibly good player”. She added: “When you play players like that, it's not so much a forehand or backhand or a serve. They can hit all of it and they can hit all of it extremely well. I think it's just about being there, fighting hard, and trying to capitalise on the small chances you do get.”