Having met and dispatched one familiar opponent in the first round at Wimbledon, world No7 Johanna Konta had to do it again if she was to break new ground on home soil. She could, with one more win, reach the third round here for the first time.
In Round 1, she faced in Su-Wei Hsieh a woman who had beaten her not just in their last meeting at the French Open last month but also in their only grass meeting, in Eastbourne in 2013. This time, Konta allowed her opponent only four games, finishing the job in 64 minutes.
Now she took on Donna Vekic, a woman who scored her first back-to-back main-tour wins in almost two years to win the Nottingham title a fortnight ago, and a week before she turned 21. She happened to beat Konta in the final, 7-5 in the third, after two and a half hours.
It took the young Croatian woman to No58 from 101 at the start of the year, though until her first-round win at Wimbledon, she did not win another grass match: she lost in the first rounds of both Surbiton and Birmingham. Indeed she had only seven match-wins to her name until Nottingham.
Which Vekic, then, would turn up for her first appearance on Centre Court? The precocious talent who, age just 16, reached her first WTA final in Tashkent and went on to finish runner-up in Birmingham the same year? The woman who won her first title as a teenager in Kuala Lumpur? Or the woman who managed just four main-draw wins in 2016 and not many more this year until Nottingham?
Konta was certainly favourite, despite having made it past the first round here only once in five previous attempts. This was her sixth, and now she was a considerably better and more confident player than in those early wild-card appearances. For it is easy to forget just how far Konta has come in the last 18 months.
She only broke the top 50 at the start of last year, was ranked 19 at Wimbledon, did not win her first title until several weeks later, and won her first Premier Mandatory only this March in Miami. As well as making the final of Nottingham, she reached the semis in Eastbourne, becoming the first British woman to beat a reigning No1, in Angelique Kerber, since Sue Barker in 1979.
Indeed Konta has built a 4-6 record over top-five opponents and a 13-8 record over top-10 players. She is the first British woman since 1984 to break into the top five, and picked up the WTA’s Most Improved player award at the end of 2016.
And these days, she relishes the big challenges. Faced with Vekic again, she said:
“That’s another great opportunity for me to try and find a way to come out on top.”
She added, in what for the restrained Briton was an ambitious message:
“I definitely would like to be involved here for the full fortnight to help, I guess, put tennis on the map that much more.”
But this would be a battle and a half, just like their last contest. The first set would last more than an hour on the hottest day of the Championships so far, edging close to 30C—a trigger for the entire population of dormant flying ants to emerge around the Club’s courts.
Fortunately for Konta and Vekic—and the thousands contending with the enclosed baking bowl of Centre Court—the flying army made few inroads. But the two women made many inroads, with big serves and big forehands, into each other’s territory. Both pressed to deuce, Vekic even fended off a break point in the first game, but not until the eighth game did one of them break through, and that was the Croat, 5-3.
However Konta maintained good intensity and went after the Vekic serve through a long ninth game. Eventually, one double fault too many, and the break was handed back.
Konta almost broke through again in the 11th game, with her huge forehand piercing the Vekic defence to bring up three break chances, but it would go, perhaps appropriately, to a tie-break. And once again, it was the Briton’s destructive forehand that got its reward. She served out the set, 7-6(3), after 67 minutes.
In the second set, too, Vekic got the first break in the opening game and held for 2-0. But as before, Konta hit back with a love hold and then a break for 2-2.
But Vekic broke once more, drilling her forehand deep and fast to the baseline, and drawing a growing number of errors from Konta. She resisted break points to hold for 4-2, held to love, and served out the set, 6-4.
The two women were now heading to two hours of tennis and, unsurprisingly, took the opportunity to leave the court for a few minutes before embarking on the do-or-die decider.
And the tension cranked up to another level, with Konta serving first, Vekic pegging her all the way. There were love holds here and there, and then each seemed to work inroads with 0-30 leads. At 6-6, Konta faced down a break point to a huge reception from the crowd, going for a drop shot to edge the lead again.
She faced 0-30 again from two huge forehands by Vekic, but hit four big serves in a row to hold. Vekic replied in kind, coming back from 0-30 with four straight points, 8-8, as the clock hit three hours. Now Konta fought for her life as she tried a drop shot only to see Vekic track it down for a pass.
She faced and saved break point and turned the attack on her opponent to go 0-30 up with a bold drive volley, and twice worked match point. Vekic saved the first with an ace, but netted on the second to concede game, set and match to the Briton, 10-8.
The crowd roared its approval as the two women embraced long and warmly at the net. It had taken 3hrs 10mins, and probably taken every drop of energy and emotion from both women. But it also took Konta to her first third round at Wimbledon.
She next plays what looks like a very winnable match against the 21-year-old Greek woman, Maria Sakkari, ranked 101 in the world. She reached the second round here last year in her debut main draw, but lost to Vekic in Nottingham this summer.
It is always tricky playing someone for the first time, but Konta looks like a woman on a mission. She could be heading for the second week at Wimbledon for the first time.
And should she make it all the way to the title, she could hardly have chosen a better year to do so. It is exactly 40 years since the last British woman won at Wimbledon: Virginia Wade.