Britain’s Johanna Konta powers into French Open last eight

British number one Johanna Konta continued her comfortable progress through the French Open draw on Sunday by seeing off Croatia’s Donna Vekic in straight sets to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final since Wimbledon in 2017.

The 26th seed overpowered Vekic 6-2, 6-4 to set up a last-eight tie with either last year’s runner-up Sloane Stephens or 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza.

“I feel fortunate to have played in the why I did against a player like Donna,” she said.

Konta last reached the quarters at a Grand Slam event at Wimbledon two years ago as a run to the semi-finals helped her to a career-high ranking of fourth.

But poor results since have seen her slip down the rankings, and she was only seeded at Roland Garros at all thanks to her runner-up effort at the Italian Open last month.

The 28-year-old had lost in the first round on all of her four previous appearances in the main draw in Paris, but broke that hoodoo against Germany’s Antonia Lottner before also beating Lauren Davis and Viktoria Kuzmova to become the first British woman to reach the fourth round since Anne Hobbs and Jo Durie in 1983.

Konta hit seven aces and 33 winners past 23rd seed Vekic, who gamely hung in the match on Court Suzanne Lenglen without ever threatening to win, breaking to level at 4-4 in the second set before losing the next two games.