28th January, 2016
British number one Johanna Konta’s superb Australian Open run came to an end with defeat by German seventh seed Angelique Kerber in the semi-finals.
Konta, the first British woman for 33 years to play in a Grand Slam semi-final, went down 7-5 6-2 in Melbourne.
The 24-year-old is still set to rise from 47th in the rankings to inside the world’s top 30, and will collect £370,000 in prize money.
Kerber goes on to face world number one and defending champion Serena Williams.
The American, 34, took just 64 minutes to thrash Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-0 6-4 and close in on a seventh Australian Open and 22nd Grand Slam title.
-Konta errors count her out-
The Briton made a nervous start and despite battling back to make the first set a contest, she could not stem a flow of errors that kept the pressure off Kerber.
Konta ended the match 36 unforced errors to the German’s 11, having dropped serve five times over an hour and 22 minutes.
She looked every bit the debutante at this level as she slipped 3-0 down, with Kerber – twice a Grand Slam semi-finalist – hardly required to do anything but keep the ball in play in the early stages.
There was real hope for Konta when she found some rhythm and clawed her way back to lead 5-4, but Kerber broke again at 5-5 and would lose just two more games.