Johanna Konta happy to reach the second week of a third straight grand slam

Johanna Konta matched her best run at the US Open and made the second week of a third successive grand slam.

The British number one, a semi-finalist at the French Open and quarter-finalist at Wimbledon, will face Karolina Pliskova in the fourth round in New York.

“I think I’m definitely pleased to have made it to the second week of the last three slams – I think that’s a really good achievement for me,” she said after a routine 6-2 6-3 win over China’s Zhang Shuai.

“Overall I’m just looking forward to playing Karolina in the fourth round. I don’t think there’s necessarily any specific magic click or pill or anything, but I definitely feel like I’ve been giving myself every opportunity possible to get better and grow.

“If I look at it from a big-picture perspective, I’ve played a lot of matches this year.

“I think coming into the US Open this year I just tried to keep along the same path more than anything.”

Konta took just 54 minutes to dispatch Margarita Gasparyan in their rain-delayed second-round match on Thursday.

And the 28-year-old was in no mood to hang around again, beating 33rd seed Zhang in one hour and 12 minutes on the Grandstand court.

“I thought I just handled the game well today. I think I went out there anticipating a tough match,” she added.

“I think I was prepared to adapt whenever I needed to. I thought I just dealt with the challenges well today of the opponent I faced and also the conditions.

“No match is easy. Third rounds are definitely not easy. Overall I’m just pleased.”