By Britwatch Tennis
- Johanna Konta v Denisa Allertova H2H: 0-1
- Rankings: Konta 47 – 66 Allertova
- Konta provisionally inside the Top 40 with her run to the third round
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – Johanna Konta looks continue her best run at the Australian Open, and to equal her Slam best run when she faces Denisa Allertova in the third round of the Australian Open.
One of Konta’s strengths has been looking forward and treating each new match as a completely new day, and after losing a heart-breaker of a first round match to Allertova last year at the French Open including a staggering 19-17 score in their first set tie-break!
To give Konta her due, after losing the tie-break she came back at the Czech to level the match, before losing the match, but time has marched on for the British No. 1 whose confidence has grown over the grass and more importantly the autumn hard court season which saw her really make up ground in the rankings.
They have had similar starts to the season with early losses in the preparation tournament early rounds, before a solid set of results so far this week. Konta was able to settle herself after the high of defeating eighth seed Venus Williams in the opening round, and had to overcome a very spirited battle with Zheng Saisai.
Allertova has put up a good fight so far, taken to three sets to beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands and another three setter to dispatch a seed of her own in Sabine Lisicki, so she will feel she has put in some solid court time ahead of this match.
The key here after that loss at the French Open was that Allertova was a direct entry ranked 88 at the time, while Konta had fought through three rounds of qualification as well. And her stock has soared since, but before we get too far ahead of ourselves she needs to play the player and not the rank.
This is winnable for Konta, but could still be quite a battle out there and we can expect this to be her first three setter of the tournament.
Konta and Allertova are scheduled on Hisense Arena at 11am (Midnight, GMT).
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