I can now start to breathe again! Super proud of Jo!!

  Yay!!

Still buzzing! Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
She was the better player throughout, and deserved to win.
Didn't play as well, especially the service, as her previous matches, but that's almost a positive in itself, because even then she was more than competitive with last years semi-finalist and former top 10 player.
Live ranking of 32 (31 with the Flavia factor).

Phew! what a morning.
Well well done Johanna. I think the phrase is 'chuffed to bits'

I watched Jo defeated in the qualies last year (I think it was last year), I was the only person in the stands watching her. Today there were a few more and this is a different person, what a difference a year makes. Her serve was hit and miss today but her ground strokes, confidence, self belief, physical and mental strength is top 10 right now. Makarova played very very well and there wasn't much in it to be honest. She was throwing in some dodgy behavior at times and Jo did really well not to be distracted by it. Again, I think last year this would have affected her massively. Her court side interview was full of humour and humility, absolutely charmed everyone. With a very winnable quarter final ahead of her, I wouldn't be surprised to see her in the semis. Trust me when I say, Jo is the real deal.....

-- Edited by Jiwan on Monday 25th of January 2016 09:57:07 AM

Wow, that was an amazing match - I watched it on bet365 and listened on 5 live/online from start to finish. Jo was so impressive and so resilient to recover after Makarova had the odd purple patch in important games, e.g. the first time she served for the match.

L16: Johanna Konta WR 47 beat (21) Ekaterina Makarova RUS WR WR 24 (CH 8 last Apr) 4-6 6-4 8-6

Jo is the first British woman to make the AO QFs for 33 years (Jo Durie 1983), the first British woman to make ANY slam QF for 32 years (Jo Durie, Wimbledon 1984) and only the sixth British woman to make the AO QFs in the Open era - 3 of them had won or went on to win slams:

- Ann Jones
- Winnie Shaw (Wooldridge), probably Scotland's most successful female player
- Virginia Wade
- Sue Barker
- Jo Durie
- Jo Konta

Who'd have thought a week and a half ago that she'd be a 'virtual' seed for the next slam by the end of this tournament!

Jiwan wrote:

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I watched Jo defeated in the qualies last year (I think it was last year), I was the only person in the stands watching her. Today there were a few more and this is a different person, what a difference a year makes. Her serve was hit and miss today but her ground strokes, confidence, self belief, physical and mental strength is top 10 right now. Makarova played very very well and there wasn't much in it to be honest. She was throwing in some dodgy behavior at times and Jo did really well not to be distracted by it. Again, I think last year this would have affected her massively. Her court side interview was full of humour and humility, absolutely charmed everyone. With a very winnable quarter final ahead of her, I wouldn't be surprised to see her in the semis. Trust me when I say, Jo is the real deal.....

-- Edited by Jiwan on Monday 25th of January 2016 09:57:07 AM

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Thanks for that and yes I think we can believe you on this

From the bits I managed to watch I was impressed how much of a weapon Jo's second serve was often hitting the lines at speed; ISF's stats box shows service speed way up on Makarova and win percentage behind second serve too  

-- Edited by vohor on Tuesday 26th of January 2016 09:32:57 AM

Jiwan wrote:

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it's hard to believe there are two brits playing at the same time on adjacent courts for quarter final places. Now statisticians, when was the last time lol

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On day 8 of last year's US Open, JoKo played Kvitová in R4 4th on Ashe (i.e. 1st night match) and Andy played a long 4-setter in R4 against Kevin Anderson 3rd on Armstrong, so they may have overlapped but I can't remember.