French Open – Chris Evert speechless as Johanna Konta’s continues to prove more than a Paris match for anybody

It was scarcely believable that this was the same player who had never won a main-draw match at Roland Garros before this year as she raced to a 6-1 6-4 victory in just 70 minutes.

Stephens lost in the final last year to Simona Halep and had been backed to get there again, but she was powerless to stop three-time grand slam semi-finalist Konta, who hit 25 winners in the match and only dropped one point on serve in the second set.

Evert, who won seven singles titles at Roland Garros in the Seventies and Eighties, said: “I am speechless, and not many matches make me speechless.

“The way Konta played that match, not giving Sloane a chance. Jo Konta, I take my hat off to you, I have never seen her play that kind of tennis, she would have beaten anybody the way she played.”

By reaching the last four Konta has matched her own best grand slam performances at the Australian Open in 2016 and Wimbledon the following year, as well as the performance of Jo Durie, who was the last British woman to reach the last four in Paris, in 1983.

But none of Konta’s previous runs has been quite like this with the 28-year-old simply bulldozing through her opposition on a surface that had been by far her worst prior to this season.

Konta is never one to get carried away, and she said of her reaction: “I think happy more than anything. I feel just really happy.

“I feel really pleased with how I dealt with the conditions out there and just how I gave myself space to play. I thought I played the game.

“It’s definitely one of my best performances. It’s hard to pinpoint what is the best performance because you’re always dealing with different types of opponents or different types of conditions.

“I definitely thought I played well behind my serve more than anything, and kept a good variety in there, which I think made it also difficult for Sloane to find her rhythm in those games. But I think overall I just played a good match.”

Stephens is one of the best athletes on tour, but she was made to look slow by the pace of her opponent’s game, and the American said: “Obviously she played well. She was serving really well.

“There is not much you can do when someone is playing like that. She definitely played her game. I didn’t get a chance to really get into the match.”

A lot of credit must go to Konta’s French coach Dimitri Zavialoff, with whom she began working in October and who has imbued her with the self-belief to trust in her game and her decision-making.

Konta’s fierce hitting will always be the basis of her game, but she has added more spin, while her drop shots and volleys have been important factors in her success on clay this season.

“I’ve always said that whenever I step out onto the court, I’m always going to have a chance,” said Konta. “I don’t think any player on tour can go on court against me and feel like they’ve definitely got it.”

Having faced Angelique Kerber and Venus Williams in her previous two slam semi-finals, Konta will be in the unfamiliar position of favourite this time around, whether she faces 31st seed Petra Martic or Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova.

Konta will climb back inside the top 20 in the rankings on Monday and would return to the top 10 if she goes on to become the first British winner of the title since Sue Barker in 1976.

Martina Navratilova, who won nine Wimbledon singles titles, two French Open, four US Opens and three Australian Opens, believes Konta has got the game to win a grand slam.

Navratilova said: “You have got to get to the finals first. But yes, she has got the game.

“On a given day she can bother anybody. It is a matter of stringing it together for seven matches - that is the trick in a major.”

Navratilova has been as surprised by Konta’s emergence as a clay-court force as anyone, saying: “It came out of nowhere really. Maybe she expected it, but we really didn’t see it because she had not won a match here.

“Then she gets to the final of Rome, which gives her a lot of confidence.

“She ran out of gas in the final because she played too many three-set matches I think. That gives you a lot of confidence and clearly she has backed it up here.

“Clearly she can play on any surface – she has got a nice game for anything. Maybe she didn’t surprise herself, but she has certainly surprised us.”