Paris: Johanna Konta became the first British woman in 36 years to reach the Roland Garros semi-finals when she swept past Sloane Stephens of the United States on Tuesday.
Konta, the 26th seed, downed last year's runner-up 6-1, 6-4 and will face either Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova or Croatian 31st Petra Martic for a place in the final.
Jo Durie was the last British woman to make the French Open semi-finals in 1983.
The 28-year-old Konta had not won a match at Roland Garros in any of her previous four visits.
However, she now finds herself in her third semi-final at a major after runs to the last-four at the 2016 Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2017.
"To play on the new Chatrier court for the first time was wonderful especially against one of the world's best players," said Konta after her third win in 2019 over Stephens.
The 26th seed tightened her grip with a break in the opening game of the second set and that proved more than enough.
Such was Konta's domination that she allowed Stephens just one point on her serve in the entire second set which ended with a whimper when the American sent a groundstroke wide of the mark.
German fifth seed Zverev reached his second successive Roland Garros quarter-final with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) win over Italy's Fabio Fognini.
Last year he achieved his best run at the Slams, making the quarter-finals where he was defeated by eventual runner-up Dominic Thiem.
"It's going to a great match and a tough battle against Novak, the world number one, it's going to be interesting," said Zverev who is 2-2 against Djokovic in his career.
However, he won their only meeting on clay in the Italian Open final in 2017 in straight sets and beat him in the ATP Finals later that year.
Japanese seventh seed Nishikori came back from 1-4 and 3-5 down in the final set to beat Benoit Paire of France and set-up a quarter-final clash on Tuesday against defending champion Rafael Nadal.
Nishikori won 6-2, 6-7 (8/10), 6-2, 6-7 (8/10), 7-5 in a shade under four hours to reach his third last-eight match at the French Open.
"He almost had it today," said Nishikori who had led two sets to one when the last-16 tie was suspended on Sunday.
"He served for the match at 5-3 but I just tried to fight and play one point at a time."
The 29-year-old Japanese could have wrapped it up in the fourth set when he had two match points but squandered both, the second on a double fault.
Federer, Nadal to face off in semis
Paris: Roger Federer overcame fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka in four sets at Court Suzanne-Lenglen to take his place in the semi-finals of Roland-Garros. In a measure of revenge for his loss to Wawrinka in the same stage, and on the same court, of the 2015 tournament, Federer triumphed 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4. Rafael Nadal dropped just fives games in a quarter-final rout of seventh seed Kei Nishikori. The Spaniard beat the Japanese 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 to advance to a 12th semi-final and will meet Roger Federer for a place in another final in Paris.
Agence France Presse
