After a washed-out Wednesday, women’s quarterfinal action at the 2016 Rio Olympics completed on Thursday and it turned out that all the four matches were straightforward two-setters. The semifinalists are Angelique Kerber, Madison Keys, Petra Kvitova and Monica Puig.
Johanna Konta was playing in arguably the biggest game of her career, the Olympic quarterfinals against world number two Angelique Kerber, but the favorite advanced in two quick sets.
The first set was one to forget for the Team GB star. Konta made too many errors, resulting in easy points for Kerber, who took them at every opportunity and comfortably took the first set 6-1.
The second set looked more promising for Konta, as she broke Kerber’s serve for the first time in the match. But the success was short-lived, as the German showed her class, reeled off four games without reply and raced into the semifinals with a 6-1 6-2 victory.
Konta can be proud of how she played, but knows that she still has some work to do to get into the Top 10 and really push the top female players in the world. Kerber in the meantime continues to impress, as she gets ever closer to a medal. The German’s semifinal opponent will be American Madison Keys, who dominated Daria Kasatkina 6-3 6-1 earlier on Thursday.
The other two quarterfinals were just as emphatic. Czech Petra Kvitova enjoyed a quick 6-2 6-0 victory over Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, the player who eliminated world No.1 Serena Williams in the third round, while Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig made short work of Germany’s Laura Siegemund 6-1 6-1. (photos: Jimmie48)
