Konta stuns Allertova to march into last 16 at Australian O

MELBOURNE: ‘Johanna Konta marches on in the Australian Open, her excellent game buttressed by that weird, metronomic serve and embellished by a high-powered cross-court forehand that was too much for Denisa Allertova on Hisense Arena on Saturday.The British No1 closed out an impressive 6-2, 6-2 win to advance to the fourth round, and she now has realistic chances of going deep into the second week after a string of seeds went out in the first five days of the tournament.Allertova extended her as far as she could, but could not resist the precision of Konta’s serve, and the job was done when Konta slammed another neat forehand to her feet, forcing a final error after 64 minutes.From here, it gets a little harder. Konta will meet the Russian No21 seed, Ekaterina Makarova, after she eliminated No9 seed Karolina Pliskova.On this showing and her earlier efforts, Konta is now a serious danger to the higher seeds in her first Australian Open. To reach the last eight would be an extraordinary effort; she would be the first British player to make the quarter-finals of a slam since Jo Durie at Wimbledon in 1984.’