Johanna Konta advances to Australian semis

The eighth-seeded Ferrer was visibly upset with the decision, which appeared to play into Murray’s hands.

“The key from this match was that I was playing and I won the match”, Kerber told reporters.

“I’m feeling very tough, because for all the Chinese players, the goal this year, we want to play the Olympic Games”.

“Actually it doesn’t matter against who I’m playing in the semis”. I grew up in Scotland where the weather is not like here.

But on Wednesday, she lost the first four games of the match and, after saving three set points, the first set.

The Eastbourne resident crumbled with two double-faults when serving for the set and allowed Zhang to claw back to 5-4.

“Yeah, that’s positive”, Murray said of the independent review.

Murray messed up a break point that would have put him within sight of a two-set lead, and Ferrer held to extend the fight.

Murray got a crucial early break in the third set before play was temporarily delayed by the closure of the stadium roof. This will be the fifth time Raonic and Murray play on hard court.

With the roof on, Murray was now in charge as he cranked up the aggression and produced levels Ferrer was simply unable to match.

There was further distraction and woe at the start of the third, when Murray complained about the lingering TV image on the big screen during play.

The British No 1 moved into the last four of a Grand Slam for the first time with victory over Chinese qualifer Zhang Shuai, so how has she got there and can she complete an unlikely run to victory this year?

On Wednesday, just as Kerber began her 6-3, 7-5 win over two-time champion Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals, the governing bodies of tennis announced they will commission an independent review of their anti-corruption unit to restore “public confidence in our sport”.

Kerber will represent Konta’s toughest test so far but after beating seven top 20 opponents since last summer, including Venus Williams in round one, anything is possible.

After Britain won the Davis Cup title last November for the first time since 1936, led nearly singlehandedly by the world No. 2, there’s a British man and woman in the semifinals at the same grand slam for the first time since 1977.

Martina Navratilova has expressed her delight that Jo Konta has reached the Australian Open semi-finals.

“She didn’t make it easy for me today”, Konta said.

“Obviously I’m also really proud of Jamie, he’s been really consistent in the last three Grand Slams and hopefully they can push on to their final too”.

Azarenka had been the second choice of the oddsmakers to win the year’s first Grand Slam event, behind No. 1-seeded Williams, and she was the overwhelming choice of ESPN’s tennis analysts.

With Konta firmly in the spotlight, what else do fans need to know about the British player who is surpassing everyone’s expectations?

“I’m pretty much the female version of Jason Bourne”, Konta said Wednesday, making a rare analogy to “The Bourne Identity” at an Australian Open news conference, where she has spent the past two weeks increasing her profile in the tennis world.

Konta beat Makarova on the grass at Eastbourne last summer but she needed all her powers of resilience to win a thrilling contest on Margaret Court Arena.

Nearly inevitably they went to the tie-break, where Ferrer went 4-1 up then served for the set at 6-5, ecstatic when Murray’s final forehand went long.

Sharapova had a career-high 21 aces in her previous win against No. 12 Belinda Bencic.