Jo Konta recovers from set down to beat Sloane Stephens and qualify for Wimbledon last 16

JO KONTA delivered a remarkable turnaround to reach the second week of Wimbledon.

Britain’s women’s number one was on the verge of falling apart in a straights loss to American ninth seed Sloane Stephens in the third round on Court No1.

But Konta, somehow, dug deep.

She ambushed Stephens in the second set and battered her opponent in the third for a terrific 3-6 6-4 6-1 win in two hours and two minutes.

The home favourite will now play two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the fourth round and she will take a hell of a lot of confidence from the second half of this performance.

Equally, Konta, a three-times Grand Slam semi-finalist, cannot allow herself to be bullied in the way she was by Stephens in the first set which lasted just 32 minutes.

At one stage, it looked as though this contest was going to be settled in under an hour.

Despite enjoying all the support, Konta, who beat Stephens in the French Open quarter-finals, looked low on confidence, made too many errors and became frustrated before those emotions turned to anger.

But somehow, she out-manoeuvred, out-thought and then outplayed Stephens who seemed to be cruising before losing her serve for the first time at 5-4 down in the second set.

One moment, Konta was not firing on all cylinders. And the next, she was on a roll with Stephens, who looked so solid with her serve a real menace, falling apart before our eyes.

Konta delivered some brilliant tennis to break again for 5-1 with Stephens left to applaud.

And she then handed the match to Konta by sending a return long to the delight of the home punters who will hope the 19th seed can carry on deep into the tournament.