Johanna Konta missed out on becoming the first British woman to break into the Women's Tennis Association's top 10 rankings for nearly 32 years on Friday night.
The 25-year-old was in prime form going into her Rogers Cup quarter-final against Kristina Kucova - but paid for too many unforced errors against the qualifier, going down 6-4 6-3.
Konta won her maiden WTA Tour title in Stanford last week and advanced to the last eight of this week's event in Montreal on the back of victories over Shelby Rogers, Vania King and Varvara Lepchenko.
However, her bid to become the first British woman in the WTA's top 10 since Jo Durie in August 1984 ended in disappointment and a nervy defeat to the Slovakian, who will now face Madison Keys for a place in the final.
The United States' Keys, the 10th seed, finished strongly after a poor second set against 16th-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, winning 7-6 1-6 6-0.
Romania's Simona Halep lost the first four games of her quarter-final against ninth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova but bounced back strongly, winning 3-6 6-1 6-1.
Fifth seed Halep, the beaten finalist in this tournament last year, will face Angelique Kerber for a place in the final.
The second-seeded German beat 19-year-old Russian Daria Kasatkina 6-2 6-2 in a match which lasted a shade over an hour - the shortest of the four quarter-finals.
Source: PA
