Johanna Konta next match: Garbine Muguruza test could be another epic

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Ben Winstanley15 January 2019

Johanna Konta will be buoyed by memories of one of the biggest wins of her career when she faces two-times Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza in the Australian Open second round.

The last time the pair played each other was in the second round of the 2015 US Open, when Konta stunned the Spaniard in a 3hr 23min epic — the longest women’s match in the tournament since they introduced the tie-break in 1970.

Konta, then ranked world No97, had to qualify for the tournament, while the Spaniard was seeded No9, two months after reaching the Wimbledon final.

The 7-6, 6-7, 6-2 victory was the Brit’s 15th in a row, a run she extended to 16 before being knocked out in the fourth round by Petra Kvitova. It was also only her second win against a player in the world’s top 10. Since that match, Konta rose rapidly up the rankings, reaching a high of No4 in 2017 before dropping to her current position of No38.

Muguruza won the 2016 French Open and Wimbledon the following year but, like Konta, has had a difficult 12 months, making it past the second round of just one of the four Slams last year and sliding from world No1 in September 2017 to world No18.

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