She was up and onto Arthur Ashe bright and early, the No14 seed Johanna Konta.
And though the roof had been closed first thing, it was now open to racing clouds that heralded increasing winds ahead of a promised storm later tonight.
For now, though, the sun shone, casting deep shadow at one end of the court, brilliant blue at the other.
Not that the top British woman was unfamiliar with the biggest arena in tennis. She made her Grand Slam breakthrough here, reaching the fourth round at a Major for the first time just a year ago. She finally lost to Petra Kvitova in this very stadium, though that was in the days before a new roof altered the acoustics and created those big shadows.
Konta had come through a tricky opening opponent in Bethanie Mattek-Sands, firing 23 winners, 6-3, 6-3. She then survived not only an on-song Tsvetana Pironkova but the challenging conditions, a physical collapse from heat exhaustion, and more than two and a half hours of demanding tennis to reach the third round. Yet potentially her biggest test, against No24 seed Belinda Bencic, brought Konta’s best to court, with the form that took her to the semis of the Australian Open. It was a 52-minute trouncing with 29 winners for only six unforced errors.
On paper, then, her match against the No48 ranked Latvian Anastasija Sevastova was expected to bring few problems—perhaps the reason so few spectators turned up to watch.
But Sevastova is a deceptive opponent, as No3 seed Garbine Muguruza would affirm after her straight sets loss. Indeed the little-known 26-year-old had yet to drop a set. Little known, because having reached 46 in the rankings in 2011, she was hit by so many injuries and losses that her ranking slumped outside the top 150, and she retired in 2013.
Sevastova, now fully fit, returned to the tour last year, plied the ITF circuit with considerable success, and came through qualifying to reach the quarters in Moscow. A switch to the main WTA tour this year saw a gradual rise, from a second round run in Australia to the finals of Mallorca and Bucharest, though she failed to get through qualifying at the big events in Indian Wells, Miami and Cincinnati.
There is no doubting, thought, that the compact and nimble Latvian has talent in spades, with a penetrating serve, aggression at the front of the court, and a smart tactical head. She can drop shot, lob and slot flat and accurate passes. And she straight away had Konta off balance and out of the rhythm on which she thrives.
Sevastova broke Konta in the second game, plying the Briton with short balls to bring her in, only to lob or pass her, or draw errors at the net.
She almost broke again in the fourth game, as Konta’s serve too often missed its mark, along with her usually accurate drives to the back corners. The Briton chivvied herself on with a rare ‘C’mon’ as she worked from 0-40 back to deuce, and at last got on the scoreboard.
But still Sevastova would not let Konta settle. The Latvian is a quick player between points, but Konta stepped in to receive serve and drew enough errors to get the break back.
They exchanged another set of breaks, and Konta seemed at last to be reading the Latvian’s game, worked two more break points, and then another with her own drop shot winner. She broke, and would serve to level the match. Yet in another erratic game, Konta again missed too many first serves, and Sevastova took full advantage to break for the set, 6-4.
The pattern of the second was almost identical. Sevastova held through three deuces and turned the tables to work break points: Konta double faulted, 0-2.
But the breaks kept coming, five more of them. From 4-1 down, Konta served to take it to 4-4, but Sevastova converted the last of three break points. The Briton lobbed to break back and held for 5-5: Perhaps this was the turning point.
Alas for British hopes, it was not. One last break, and Sevastova had the match, 7-5, after an hour and three-quarters.
Konta admitted afterwards: “I didn’t play the tennis level that I maybe would have liked, but I competed the best I could, left it all out there… I think I needed to be a little more offensive in certain parts and also be able to just move a bit better. But I used what I had today, and unfortunately just wasn’t good enough… But honestly, all credit to her. I think she handled the situation well.”
Inevitably Konta was asked about her recovery from her collapse earlier this week: “I think it was just managing my energy levels today and managing what I had left in the tank. I had to really stay within myself and really just focus on the best I could do. Now I will go back home and rest and just work on trying to improve.”
Sevastova will next play Caroline Wozniacki, who like the Latvian, is on the comeback trail after numerous injury problems. The popular Dane, twice a runner-up in New York and a former No1, missed her first Major since 2007 at the French Open earlier this year with an ankle injury, not returning for over 10 weeks. But this followed problems last year too—a wrist and a back injury to name two.
However, the old familiar Wozniacki has emerged at the Major where she enjoyed most success, and she dominated a tired-looking No8 seed Madison Keys, who had twice faced defeat in three-set battles. Her first, against Alison Riske, set a new record for the latest finish at the US Open.
It took Wozniacki just an hour and a quarter to reach her first Major quarter-final since her runner-up finish here in 2014, 6-3, 6-4.
In the other quarter, last year’s finalist and No7 seed Roberta Vinci beat Lesia Tsurenko, 7-6, 6-2, and will next face either Petra Kvitova or Angelique Kerber.