Rome, May 19: Johanna Konta's wonderful run of three straight victories over her one-time idol Venus Williams came to an end in Rome on Thursday, where the British No. 1 lost to the 7-time Grand Slam winner by a 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 score line.

The win sees Venus qualify for the quarter final of the Italian Open and her form suggests that she could be the favourite for the French Open which starts next week.

Williams, who had lost her last three encounters with the British number one, showed no signs of nerves as she dictated play from the baseline and broke Konta twice in the first set. Her experience proved to give her the upper hand over the British number one.

Konta recovered to take the second set and level the match but Williams, who won the Rome title in 1999, came back spectacularly with a decisive double break in the third set.

The key statistic was Williams's high proportion of break-points saved: 87 percent, or seven out of eight.

On almost every occasion when she was in trouble, the world No. 12 found a big serve up the middle, or otherwise, a body serve, which she used superbly throughout the match to earn points without fuss.

The American will meet either defending champion Garbine Muguruza or Germany's Julia Georges in the quarter-finals.

Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit, who defeated world number one Angelique Kerber on Wednesday, continued to build momentum with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over 16th-seed Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.

Sixth-seed Simona Halep marched past Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1 4-6 6-0 in the other third-round clash. The Romanian will face Kontaveit in the quarter-finals.

Unseeded Daria Gavrilova stunned Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the final eight of the competition with a 2-6 7-5 6-4 victory.

Venus Williams, now 36, proves yet again that age is just a number just like Roger Federer and her own sister Serena Williams by beating in-form Konta while it was evident that the latter, just like his compatriot, Andy Murray struggles in clay surface.

OneIndia News