Johanna Konta left behind her shoulders the difficult opening match against Anastasija Sevastova and entered the court with the right confidence against Pauline Parmentier, in their third round match at the Miami Open.
Konta, who had reached the quarterfinals of this tournament in 2016, took full control of the game after a balanced first part of the match, and with a huge help from her serve and forehand, she dominated a more and more struggling Parmentier to book her spot in the fourth round. The Frenchwoman, who had previously given Angelique Kerber a hard time in their match in Indian Wells, seemed to completely lose her focus after losing the first set, and she had been unable to fight back in the second.
Konta conquers a crucial break to win the second set
Parmentier served to start the match, and after falling 0-30 down, she quickly recovered with two aces and as many good first serves that left her opponent unable to hit a return. The Briton didn't start as well, and needed to fight from 40-40 to eventually hold.
The French kept her consistency on serve with a hold to love, but this time, the Briton did just as much good, dropping only one point on her service game with a double-fault.
From then on, the balance of the match started to lean towards the world number 11, who gained a first chance to break in the following game, but wasted it with a forehand error. Parmentier refused to give up, and she optimized her serve to hold and keep the lead in the set.
After a quick game to love from Konta, the Frenchwoman found herself in struggle again, hitting a double-fault on her game point and then suffering Konta's aggressive game, which granted the Briton another chance to break. Parmentier saved it once again with a good first serve, but two perfectly constructed points from Konta left her little chances to fight, and she eventually lost her serve. Another quick game to love from Konta consolidated her advantage.
Despite pulling out an easy hold on her service game, the Frenchwoman could nothing as the Briton served for the set. Once again without dropping a point, Konta claimed the first set with a 6-4 scoreline.
Konta loses only five points in the second set and claims the match
As the second set started, it was clear that the British number one was at this point in total control of the match. Keeping the perfect consistency showed in her service games, Konta improved in returns as well, answering to Parmentier's first serve with powerful and deep returns, and taking control of the rallies to score points.
The Briton immediately broke to start the second set, and held to love to consolidate her advantage. The Frenchwoman struggled to fight, hitting errors and being unable to keep up with her opponent's shots.
She fell another break down, and once again could nothing while Konta was on serve. On the fifth game, it was clear that the Frenchwoman was completely out of focus; she lost her serve to love, giving away the break point with a huge forehand error.
Parmentier scored the last of the five points she collected during the entire second set to save the first match point. Konta, however, immediately converted the second one with a backhand winner, signing a clear 6-4, 6-0 victory and gaining her ticket for the round of 16.
The match in numbers
Looking at the statistics, it is bright clear that Konta pulled out a very good performance to get her win. She dropped a total of seven points during her service games, hitting 57% of first serves in and winning 91% of the points with the first serve and 71% with the second. Parmentier did well with her first serve too in the first set (with 77% of points won), but struggled a lot with her second serve, with only 28% of points won in the entire match.
The confrontation of winners and unforced errors also paints a clear picture. The British hit 19 winners to her opponent's 5, and 5 unforced errors against Parmentier's 11.
Johanna Konta will meet either Madison Keys or Lara Arruabarrena for a chance to reach the quarterfinals for the second year in a row.