Great Britain’s Jo Konta beats world No8 Ekaterina Makarova at Eastbourne

Jo Konta takes the attack to Ekaterina Makarova at Eastbourne. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

JOHANNA Konta conquered her own nerves first, steeling herself after a brief wobble midway through the second set, and then recorded the finest victory of her career by dumping Ekaterina Makarova out of the Aegon International. She beat the world No8 6-2, 6-4 in the second round with a wonderful display of forceful and cool tennis.

The Australian-born British No3 was superb, always positive in her play, dominant in the long rallies and mature in the big moments.

Konta, who will face either Garbiñe Muguruza or Polona Hercog in the third round, is on a roll. She reached the quarter-finals of the Aegon Open in Nottingham and had already caused a stir in the first round at Eastbourne by overcoming the world No34, Zarina Diyas, but few people expected her to be capable of containing Makarova.

The Russian has a serious pedigree. Makarova is a former champion here and the fourth seed was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon last year and a semi-finalist at the US Open and the Australian Open.

She rarely looked happy. Makarova’s first serve failed to fire and her left-handed forehand often buckled in the face of relentless returning from Konta, who played well above her ranking of 146th in the world.

Konta made a fast start, breaking in the opening game of the match, and she never looked back from there. She defended expertly, crunched winners past Makarova off both sides and her serve was never under threat in the first set. Overall Konta won 78% of her first serves. Makarova won only half of hers and Konta converted five of her 12 break points.

When she held to love in the sixth game, the feeling grew that a major upset was on the cards. Konta broke for a 5-2 lead in the next game, staying with Makarova thanks to a series of defensive slices and drawing the error from her on break point, and she had no trouble holding serve to take the first set with surprising ease.

The fight was in danger of disappearing from Makarova when Konta broke in the first game of the second set, pouncing on a limp second serve and crunching a rasping forehand winner from left to right, but it was not going to be entirely straightforward against a player of this calibre. The mood shifted when Makarova broke back and dragged herself back into contention by winning three consecutive games.

What stood out about Konta’s performance, though, was the way that she dealt with adversity. She broke for a 4-3 lead and then shrugged off the disappointment of letting Makarova back in with a double-fault and an errant backhand.

Konta was undeterred, even when she was down 30-0 on Makarova’s serve at 4-4. She fought hard, refused to give in and broke when she overpowered Makarova with another one of those piercing backhands.

The question now was whether Konta could see it through. Yet there was never a hint of a choke in the decisive game and a forehand winner sealed a victory that she will not forget in a hurry. www.theguardian.com