Johanna Konta is through to the fourth round of the Australian Open to play Ekaterina Makarova - for the second year in a row - after beating the former world No1 Caroline Wozniacki in an hour-and-a-quarter on day six, and there are sound reasons to believe she can reach the final weekend of the tournament.

She got to the semi-finals 12 months ago when ranked 47 in the world, losing to the eventual champion, Angelique Kerber, but her immediate goal is to get past Makarova again on Monday and then, in all probability, Serena Williams in the quarter-finals two days later.

It is some ask, but the world No9 is playing the sort of disciplined tennis that has struck hesitancy into all her opponents over the past year, here and elsewhere.

Her serve clicked again, building on her reputation with six aces and 69% of points won on second serve. She is pretty much impregnable with ball in hand, as she was last year when she led the Tour with second-serve success, the giveaway indicator of a solid game. As well, some of her ground strokes on Saturday were stunning in power and precision.

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Konta broke in the seventh game and, while remaining vigilant against an opponent she respects for her physical and mental resilience, she closed out the first set with another break. She broke and held comfortably at the start of the second set, going on to win 6-3, 6-1, although double-faulting for the third time on match point when over-reaching for a grandstand finish.

It was every bit as impressive as her tough win over unseeded Kirsten Flipkens and her more emphatic overpowering of the Japanese prospect Naomi Osaka.

“I definitely played a very high level,” she said courtside. “I’m happy to come through that. She really makes you work for it. I wanted to assert myself from the get-go, and I managed to do that.”

In three matches in the toughest section of the draw, Konta has given up just 16 games, fewer than either of last year’s finalists, Kerber and Serena Williams.

Her breakthrough in 2016 marked the first time a British player had reached the semi-finals since Sue Barker in 1977, yet the host broadcaster, Channel 7, insist on referring to her as “Australian-born” Konta, with regular reminders during her matches that she spent the first 14 years of her life in Sydney before her immigrant parents moved back to Europe to be closer to family remaining in Hungary.

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That is a slight nuancing of the facts, as Konta’s family emigrated to the UK to more easily install her in the Sanchez Casal Barcelona academy (where she first met Andy Murray) to work on her tennis. Konta, who became a British citizen five years ago and calls Bournemouth home, can only grin and bear it when confronted with this serial if innocent flag-waving.

If she paused to consider a wider sporting context, she could remind her patriotic inquisitors that the Australia cricket team has four players with overseas connections, including Yorkshireman Matt Renshaw, who still has a British passport, as does Peter Handscomb, who was born in Melbourne (and was a fine junior tennis player).

All that aside, Konta did herself proud on Saturday and was warmly received by fans of all backgrounds on another hot but hardly oppressive days. She said of another big match against the Russian, “We had an incredibly close fourth round here last year. I beat her 8-6 in the third. You don’t have any easy matches at this stage.”

Makarova, who survived a second-set fightback from 0-4 by the former finalist and sixth seed, Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2, 6-7 (3-7), 6-3 on the main court. However, the Russian 30th seed needed a medical time-out early in the third set for what appeared to be a hand injury and might not be at her best on Monday. Cibulkova was not convinced. “She was cramping a little bit in her hand,” she said later. “Maybe not. I don’t know.”

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Beyond Makarova lies an altogether different challenge: Serena Williams, fit and smiling and in the sort of form that has won her 22 majors.

“She has form, fitness and is getting stronger,” the former British No1 Sam Smith said of Konta. “Absolutely she can beat Serena Williams. She is going from strength to strength.”

Still, as the TV promotional motif of these championships – Novak Djokovic sitting courtside humming along to Be Happy - continues to haunt our perceptions of dominance two days after his unscheduled departure, Williams, serenely, lingers magnificently in the women’s draw.

She rightly cavilled at the ill-informed suggestion on Thursday that her win over 6-3, 6-4 over Lucia Safarova was “scrappy”, and reinforced her point by beating her outclassed compatriot, Nicole Gibbs, for the loss of just four games in 63 minutes on Saturday.

“It was such a beautiful day today,” she said. “I love playing in the sun.” But the six-times champion could not recall in her midsummer reverie who her opponent was the first time she had played on the main court here, 19 years ago to the day: her sister Venus. “Really?” she said courtside.

She knows who she is playing next, however, and is ready for the challenge. She plays 16th seed Barbora Strycova, who beat one of Andy Murray’s favourite players, Caroline Garcia, 6-2, 7-5.

Whoever goes through to the quarter-finals, the threats coming from the top half on that side of the draw are less fierce, although the second week of a slam throws up all sorts of surprises, especially in the women’s draw here at the first major of the season.

Among them is Jenny Brady, a 21-year-old American qualifier who is in her second year on the Tour and confided after putting out the 14th seed, Elena Vesnina, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, that she had booked a flight home for next Wednesday. Whatever happens when she plays the seemingly ageless Mirjana Lucic-Baroni on Monday, Brady’s world ranking of 116 will be left way behind. She has also doubled her career earnings in a fortnight.