Johanna Konta continued her brilliant run at the French Open by beating Donna Vekic to reach the quarter-finals of a grand slam for the fourth time, where she now faces Sloane Stephens..
Konta was already the first British woman through to the fourth round at Roland Garros since 1983 and she is now one win away from matching Jo Durie's achievement of making the semi-finals that year.
This performance was her best yet given the calibre of her opponent - Vekic is at a career-high mark of 24 in the world rankings and has been having a very good year.
Konta took control of the match from the start and did not allow Vekic to impose herself in a 6-2 6-4 victory.
The British number one will not find out who she is playing until later but it is guaranteed to be a tough match against either last year's runner-up Sloane Stephens or former champion Garbine Muguruza.
Konta had produced a display of fierce but controlled hitting to swat aside Viktoria Kuzmova in the third round and began in the same fashion here, leaving Vekic staring at the lines as she cleaned the clay off several of them to break in the first game.
There were three breaks of serve to start the match but Konta was serving better, too, drawing Vekic out wide or pushing her back and then punishing the short ball.
The pair are friends off the court and have practised together a number of times as well as playing six previous matches, the most memorable of which was a victory for Konta in the second round of Wimbledon two years ago in a battle that went all the way to 10-8 in the deciding set.
Konta had lost their last two encounters but she has been a player rejuvenated since getting onto clay, previously her worst surface, and her knowledge of Vekic's game certainly seemed to be helping her.
After breaking the Vekic serve for a third time, Konta saved three break points at 5-2 with winners before clinching the set with an ace.
The beginning of the second set was tighter but Konta was playing with complete conviction in her shots, something that has been lacking since her run to the semi-finals of Wimbledon two summers ago.
Since then she has dipped nearly outside the top 50 in the rankings from a high of four but this win could well see her climb back inside 20, and there is no doubt she is playing tennis worthy of that and higher.
She put her first foot wrong by failing to hold serve for 5-3 in the second set after breaking Vekic.
But another break of the Croatian's serve, clinching with a precision drop shot, left her serving for the match and this time there were no wobbles as she served it out to love.
Stephens books Konta clash
Sloane Stephens positioned herself as the favourite to reach another French Open final after beating former champion Garbine Muguruza in the fourth round.
This clash stood out for the pedigree of both players on clay and it was seventh seed Stephens, the runner-up to Simona Halep 12 months ago, who was the steadier to claim a 6-4 6-3 victory.
"I thought it was a good match," said the American. "I thought we both played really well. It was very competitive. I think she's been playing some good tennis, and I think so have I.
"Clay is very neutral. She plays really well on this surface. And obviously since she is such an intense and aggressive player, you kind of have to match her energy.
"I think you can't get passive when you're playing her, so I knew from the very first point I was going to have to step it up and hit my shots. And that's what I did was try to match her the whole way through."
Stephens, who is the highest-ranked player left apart from Halep, will face 26th seed Johanna Konta in the last eight after she defeated Donna Vekic 6-2 6-4 to continue her impressive run at the tournament.
