Konta defeats Halep, Venus eliminates Kerber in Miami

After second seed Karolina Pliskova and twelfth seed Caroline Wozniacki set up their Miami Open semifinal clash on Tuesday, Johanna Konta and Venus Williams completed the tournament’s semifinal field on Wednesday with victories over Simona Halep and Angelique Kerber, respectively.

In the first Wednesday’s quarterfinal, the tenth-seeded Konta surrendered the sole break of the first set, but then opened the second set with a 3-0 lead, getting just a point away from 4-0. The third-seeded Halep, who saved a match point in the previous round against Samantha Stosur, hit back to force a tiebreak in the unpredictable set, but Konta dug deep and won a scrappy tiebreak to take the match to a decider,…