Johanna Konta reaches the fourth round of the French Open for the first time

Johanna Konta has become the first Briton to go to the Opening of France in sixteenth place since 1983, after defeating the Slovak Viktoria Kuzmova at Roland Garros.

Konta, 28, continued her good season on clay with a 6-2 win at 6-1 in the late evening on the new Court Simonne-Mathieu.

Despite the illness this week, the 26th seed broke the service five times to seal an impressive victory in 54 minutes.

Konta will face Sunday the 24th seeded Croatian Donna Vekic.

The Briton had never won a main draw at Roland Garros before this week, but now finds herself with a quarter-final shot.

Anne Hobbs and Jo Durie were the last British to qualify for the last 16 in Paris in 1983, Durie qualifying for the semi-finals.

A superb Konta outperforms Kuzmova

Konta has now reached at least the last 16 of the four Grand Slam tournaments.

This performance is guaranteed by a breathtaking performance against Kuzmova, 21, who won 80% of the points behind her first serve and hit 20 winners.

Konta showed exactly why she climbed back into the world rankings after a productive clay season that saw her reach the finals of the Moroccan Open and the Italian, beating Sloane Stephens, Venus Williams and Kiki Bertens on his way to Rome.

The Brit would have expected to meet Bertens again in this match, but that did not materialize after the Dutch fourth seeded retired from her second-round match against Kuzmova due to illness.

Konta is also struggling with a disease in Paris. He has a blocked nose and a sore throat after Wednesday's win over Lauren Davis.

She needed a strong mental resilience to win this match – this one was a lot simpler.

Kuzmova, ranked 46th in the world, hardly resisted in a first set where Konta rocked it with awesome first services and superb winners.

Konta beat his way to win the first three games and, after a whim when Kuzmova sank 3-2, he refocused to announce the next three games in the set.

The misfortunes of Kuzmova were summarized by a double fault at the point of adjustment and continued to appear edgy in the second set.

Kuzmova's body language indicating that she was there for the shot, Konta continued to hit her opponent and conceded only nine points as the victory was quickly wrapped up.

& # 39; A seriously impressive performance & # 39; – badysis

BBC Sport tennis correspondent Russell Fuller at Roland Garros

It was a seriously impressive performance by a very confident woman.

Kuzmova is enjoying a good season, but has proved erratic at his first appearance in the third round of a Grand Slam.

And it was hardly surprising: Konta served perfectly and hit many heavy balls in the depths of the field to put enormous pressure on the 21-year-old.

Konta or Donna Vekic now have a chance in the quarter-finals.

There is a little choice between them: they have divided their six meetings so far and Vekic is ranked three places higher.

A repeat of their second round match at Wimbledon in 2017 would not be a problem. Konta won 10-8 in the last set, while the flying ants came down on The All England Club.