Johanna Konta makes history for Britain with win over Ekaterina Makarova to reach quarter-finals

Konta's fabulous success in three hours and four minutes sees her emulate former British number one Jo Durie, who reached the last eight at Wimbledon in 1984.

Durie - a Eurosport commentator at Melbourne Park - was also the last British woman to make it as far as the quarter-finals at the Australian Open where she lost to Martina Navratilova in three sets in 1983.

British number one Konta - who was born in Sydney but swapped to represent GB after gaining British citizenship in 2012 - had to do it the hard way by recovering from losing the first set when she was a break up to overcome Russian number 21 seed Makarova, a player ranked 23 places above her in the world.

"Goodness gracious. I think it was mentally, emotionally, physically, I left it all out here on court," said Konta. "I ran after every single ball and fought for every single point.

The Sydney-born player's second victory over Makarova in the past seven months - she enjoyed a win over her on grass in Eastbourne in June - is a career highlight against a figure who reached the semi-finals at last year's Australian Open and the quarter-finals in Melbourne in 2012 and 2013.

The world number 47 will face the winner of the final women's last-16 match between 15th seed Madison Keys and Shuai Zhang of China after winning an epic fifth set that ran for 79 minutes.

The Brit served for the match leading 5-4 only for Makarova to break back, but Konta kept her cool with real grit, composure and boosted by some thumping winners from deep. She will certainly fancy her chances of reaching the last four of the season's first Grand Slam.

Since qualifying for the US Open fourth round last year, she has managed to overcome five players inside the world's top 20, including former world number Venus Williams in the first round in Melbourne.

She is already inside the world's top 40 courtesy of this glorious run in Mebourne that could yet get better.