London (GUARDIAN) - Two days after walking away, euphoric, from the warm and dazzling stage of Rod Laver Arena with Venus Williams added to her list of top 10 scalps, Johanna Konta was pitched back into the relative obscurity of an outside court on day four of the 2016 Australian Open.
And what impressed about her 6-2, 6-3 win over China's Zheng Saisai in an arena that disturbingly resembled a cramped prison exercise yard, was that her level did not dip, her fierce gaze remaining fixed as she went through to the third round.
The Sydney-born player who has learnt most of her tennis in Eastbourne, her home, and Spain, her training base, was as ruthless in closing out a win against the world No.83 as she was in bringing the tournament of a seven-slam champion to an unexpected and dramatic finish two days earlier.
Konta, who employs a mind coach and had the courtside guidance of Jeremy Bates here on Thursday, was single-minded from start to finish.
Two mistakes revealed much about her development. After breezing through the first set - as against Williams - she butchered a simple volley for 2-0 in the second, but a sublime backhand volley on the run on the way to holding for 2-1 moments later demonstrated that she is the mistress of the moment, able to forget errors and push on to the next point. In a sport of as many ebbs as points (she won 59 of the 102 on offer here), it is a priceless talent.
She was not always in such command of her nerves, and has blown quite a few winning opportunities in the past, as her Federation Cup coach, Judy Murray, pointed out when Konta was beginning her extraordinary winning run in the second half of last summer.
The second mistake that underlined her growth arrived as she was serving for the match at 5-0 (again, just as she wobbled briefly against Williams on Tuesday). And again she regrouped, looking across to Bates for reassurance as she took the ball in hand to serve out.
When she forced a final tired forehand from her opponent, she bent double and fist-pumped - the sort of determination that might well carry her into the second week of this tournament.
