Johanna Konta’s stranglehold over Venus Williams continues as she became the first British woman to reach the Miami Open final.

Konta was just six years old when Williams first won the tournament 19 years ago and has cited the seven-time grand slam winner as one of her heroes. But she showed no room for sentiment in her 6-4, 7-5 semi-final win, her third successive victory against the American.

It sets up a showpiece meeting with Caroline Wozniacki and gives the British No1 a chance to win her second title at this level - a ‘Premier Mandatory’.

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“There wasn’t much in it so for me to come through that leaves me feeling very happy and maybe a bit lucky,” said Konta afterwards.

Konta raced into a 3-0 lead in the first set, which included two breaks, with some incredible baseline hitting that pinned Williams back. But the 36-year-old salvaged one of those breaks and made the Briton serve it out, which she did.

Williams, barely able to land a first serve, saved five break points early in the second set and celebrated by immediately taking Konta’s delivery to lead 3-1. But Konta showed her resilience by twice taking Williams’ serve – helped by a plethora of double faults and some monstrous returns – to put her on the brink of victory at 5-4.

She fluffed her first attempt to serve the match out, but again bounced straight back to break Williams to love and made no mistake at the second attempt, closing it out 7-5, with match point being converted shortly after midnight local time. The win books her return to the top 10 of the rankings, with a career high number seven on offer if she lifts the trophy on Saturday.

Roger Federer fought off two match points before beating No10 Tomas Berdych 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (6) in a quarter-final matchup. Wozniacki rallied with far less drama, the No12 seed topping second-seeded Karolina Pliskova 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 to reach the final at Key Biscayne for the first time in her 10 appearances at the tournament.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Roger Federer fought off two match points to beat Tomas Berdych and now faces Nick Kyrgios. Photograph: Rhona Wise/EPA

“I’m happy today to have come through somehow,” Federer said. “I definitely got very lucky at the end. But I think I showed great heart today, Tomas really started to step it up and it was a great match at the end.”

Federer is now 4-0 in tiebreakers at this tournament, none of the first three as pressure-packed as the one he needed Thursday. He was serving for the match at 5-3 and got broken, had a match point in the next game and couldn’t convert, then was down 6-4 in the breaker before winning the final four points.

“I just lost by one point. That’s what happened. Very simple, very straightforward,” Berdych said. “He was the one serving out the match, didn’t make it. I had a match point, didn’t make it. I had two, didn’t make it. So what else to say?”

Federer – a two-time champion at Key Biscayne and now 17-1 in 2017 – will play either No12 Nick Kyrgios or No16 Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals on Friday. Kyrgios and Zverev were scheduled to play their quarter-final later Thursday.

Wozniacki won 12 of the final 14 games in her semi-final matchup to win 5-7, 6-1, 6-1.

“This is one of the few tournaments where I’ve never made a finals,” Wozniacki said. “I think my best result here was semi-finals five years ago. It’s always been a tournament where I wouldn’t say I struggle, but I’ve just not had the results I wanted.”

That’s not the case this year.

The part-time South Florida resident – she has a place in nearby Miami Beach, practices at Key Biscayne sometimes, even has been courtside at Miami Heat games – was clearly the fresher player as the match unfolded on a sunny, 80F afternoon. She wasted three set points in the opening set, won the first three games in the second set and kept rolling.

“I got a good start to the second set and that kind of got me fired up,” Wozniacki said.

In Federer’s case, the second set is where things started going awry.

He needed only 26 minutes to take the first set, before Berdych – battling through a gimpy left ankle – found his stride. Federer broke for 4-2 in the third, was serving for the match at 5-3 and got broken at love, then let a match point get away later.

But he held on, joining Rafael Nadal and Fabio Fognini in the semi-finals.

“Sick atmosphere,” Federer told the crowd afterward. “Thanks for making it very special.”