World No8 Johanna Konta has reached her first WTA final on grass after beating Magdalena Rybarikova 6-2, 7-5 at the Aegon Open Nottingham.
Top seed Konta will face the winner of the second semi-final between 2017 French Open doubles champion Lucie Safarova and 20-year-old Croatian Donna Vekic.
Speaking after her win, Konta said: “It feels pretty good. I’m really happy to have made it to the end of the week!”
Of her potential opponent in Sunday’s final, she added:
“I’ve played both of them and they are incredibly talented and great players. I know Donna is playing very well recently and I know Lucie is a very dangerous player as well, and I’m sure they’re going to have a great match here. I’m looking forward to competing against one of them tomorrow.”
All five of Konta’s finals have come in under 12 months. The first yielded the Stanford title last summer, and she went on to reach the final of the prestigious Beijing Premier Mandatory last autumn. This year began with the Sydney title, before she bagged her biggest prize thus far, the Premier Mandatory trophy in Miami.
She struggled with form through the entire two month-clay swing, winning just two matches from Stuttgart to the French Open, but she has always felt at home on the turf of home.
At the All England Club, she will hope to make her first big breakthrough, having already done so at the Australian Open— with semi- and a quarter-final runs—and to a lesser extent at the US Open, where she has made the fourth round for the last two years. At Wimbledon, however, she has won just a single match in five main-draw appearances—last year.
Clearly it is not because her big game does not suit the grass: She has made the quarters and semis in her last two Eastbourne appearances as well as this latest final. The title could even draw her level with her own career-high of No6 come Monday, though for how long will depend upon where the points offered over the next fortnight in Birmingham and Eastbourne fall.
For now, she has to turn her attention to the doubles draw in Nottingham. Already, Brits Laura Robson and Jocelyn Rae have advanced to the final with a 6-3, 3-6, 10-6 win over compatriot Heather Watson and American Christina McHale.
Robson and Rae will meet either Konta and Belgian partner Yanina Wickmayer or Australian duo Monique Adamczak and Storm Sanders, who play later Saturday.