A stellar field of 56 has been whittled down to two. It\u2019s been an exciting week at Foro Italico. Marathon matches played on Thursday, thanks to Wednesday\u2019s rain out. Top seeds eliminated. Two top contenders out of competition with injury. And, now there are two.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look at Johanna Konta\u2019s and Karolina Pliskova’s quest for the title. Which lady will be holding the trophy in Rome?<\/p>\n
Head to head:\u00a0<\/strong>Konta 1-5 Pliskova<\/p>\n The Czech has a commanding lead in their previous bouts.<\/p>\n Johanna Konta turned in the best performance of her clay court career to eliminate the Mutua Madrid Open champion. In fact, 2019 is Konta\u2019s career-best clay court season<\/a>. In a few short months, Konta has brought in more clay wins that she has in the past three years. Konta appears to have mastered the tricky surface which woefully diminished her WTA ranking.<\/p>\n It took the Brit nearly three hours to bring in her 5-7 7-5 6-2 semifinal win. Britain #1’s aggressive play gave her the edge. Konta hugged the baseline, taking away time from Bertens. Hard hitting groundstrokes to the open court left Bertens struggling to get back into the point. Bertens’ serve wasn\u2019t without challenges. The Dutchwoman\u2019s 10 aces were erased by her 10 double faults – net zero. While Konta had but a single ace, she maintained a 63% first serve percentage. Yet, it was the return game where the Brit excelled, honing in on the Bertens serve. Control of the points came via Konta\u2019s destructive return\u00a0 and aggressive court positioning.Johanna Konta<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nEmbed from Getty Images<\/a>