Konta stuns Halep in quarters

Venus becomes oldest player in semis at SW19

Johanna Konta became the first British woman to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for 39 years as the world number seven fought back to beat Simona Halep 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Tuesday.

Konta thrilled the patriotic Centre Court crowd in a quarterfinal classic that ended second seed Halep’s bid to become the new world number one.

The 26-year-old, who has never reached a Grand Slam final, faces five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the semifinals on Thursday.

Halep’s defeat means Czech Karolina Pliskova, who lost in the Wimbledon second round, will replace Angelique Kerber on top of the WTA rankings.

Meanwhile, Venus became the oldest Wimbledon semifinalist for 23 years as the five-time champion brushed aside French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko, while Garbine Muguruza powered past Svetlana Kuznetsova to make it back to the last four.

Williams' 73-minute masterclass clinched a 6-3, 7-5 victory that made her the most senior player to reach the semifinals since Martina Navratilova in 1994.

Williams was knocked out in the 2016 semifinals and is chasing a first major title since winning Wimbledon in 2008.

Her victory equalled her sister Serena's total of 86 main draw match victories at Wimbledon, the most among any active player.

Later, Muguruza powered into her second semifinal at the SW19 in the last three years with an emphatic 6-3, 6-4 win over Russian seventh seed Kuznetsova.

Since winning her maiden Grand Slam title at the French Open last year, Muguruza has struggled to return to the top and this is her first major semifinal since that Roland Garros triumph. Muguruza, beaten by Serena in the 2015 Wimbledon final, will face Coco Vandeweghe or Magdalena Rybarikova in the last four.

Djokovic through
In the men’s section, second seed Novak Djokovic eased into the quarterfinals with a routine 6-2, 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over France's Adrian Mannarino.

Djokovic was due to follow Nadal on to Court One but the Spaniard's defeat by Muller lasted 4 hours 48 minutes and made it impossible for the Serb's match to be completed before dark. Djokovic will face Czech Tomas Berdych in the last eight.

Djokovic complained of a ‘hole’ on Centre Court. He highlighted a problem with the surface to the chair umpire late in his three-set win.

“During the match I mentioned that there is a hole in the middle of the court, middle of the service line and he asked me to show him and I did. He was not very pleased to see that,” Djokovic said.

Mahak out, Zeel through
Among the Indians, Mahak Jain suffered a tame defeat to crash out of girls singles event while Zeel Desai got lucky as she lost the first set but still advanced to the pre-quarterfinals after her opponent retired mid-way into the contest.

Mahak Jain lost 2-6, 1-6 to American third seed Claire Liu in her second round match. Zeel was trailing 5-7, 1-0 in her second round match when Russia’s Marta Paigina decided to withdraw from the contest.

Results (prefix denotes seeding): Men: Round 4: 2-Novak Djokovic (Srb) bt Adrian Mannarino (Fra) 6-2, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4

Women: quarterfinals: 6-Johanna Konta (Gbr) bt 2-Simona Halep (Rom) 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-4; 14-Garbiñe Muguruza (Esp) bt 7-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Rus) 6-3, 6-4; 10-Venus Williams (US) bt 13-Jelena Ostapenko (Lat) 6-3, 7-5.