British tennis player Johanna Konta. (Photo : Getty Images)
Britain's Johanna Konta breezed past the challenge of China's highest-ranked player, Zheng Saisai, 6-2, 6-3, in a second round match of the 2016 Australian Open held on Thursday at Court 8 of the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia.
SkySports indicated that the 24-year-old British number one has "moved into the third round of a Grand Slam for only the second time in her career" after what seemed like a "routine win".
Konta, currently ranked no. 47 in the world, began her stint in the tournament with an impressive victory over world no. 7 Venus Williams, sister of world no. 1 Serena, 6-4, 6-2, at the Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday morning, but going back to the minor court two days later did not change her form.
Meanwhile, Zheng, who is ranked 36 places lower than her British counterpart at no. 83, tried to make a match out of it, pressing hard during rallies, but she could not complete several break points and her serves were weak throughout the match.
She consistently held her game from the back, but "her shots lacked penetration", which allowed Konta to easily hit them back.
Konta's effective groundstrokes were the main problems for Zheng as the Briton finished the first set in only 37 minutes.
The second set seemed harder to close for Konta, even as she dropped three games to Zheng as opposed to two in the opener, with the tension of going through another round obviously affecting her strokes.
"There were definitely some nerves at the end," Konta said, as per BBC Sport. "I was very happy I was able to keep it together, there's so much tension out there. I'm just happy I was able to deal with it the best I could and come through."
"I had a lot of support. It is a real pleasure to play in front of people who enjoy and you are able to entertain. At the end of the day we are entertainers," she added.
The Sydney, Australia native will next face Czech Republic's Denisa Allertová, ranked 63rd in the world, in the third round. Allertová is a familiar foe for Konta as the 22-year-old Czech eliminated her in the first round of last year's French Open.
