Johanna Konta responded in the best possible way to her shock Australian Open second round loss to Bernarda Pera by beating the same opponent 7-6 6-1 in Doha.
The Briton put in a poor performance in Melbourne and the American, then ranked 123, took full advantage to beat her 6-4 7-5 and announce herself to the tennis world.
But it was a different story this time around as Konta gave Pera no quarter during a tight first set that swung one and then the other. The Brit started superbly and raced into the 3-0 lead, but the American then found her rhythm and reeled off 4 consecutive games to turn the set on its head.
Konta responded well by breaking straight back and the players then exchanged a hold and a break apiece to take it into a tie-break. The breaker was close too but Pera eventually cracked under the pressure and hit a relatively easy forehand wide to gift the World No.11 a set point on her serve.
Konta gratefully took advantage to go one set up and then it got easier from there as the errors started to flow from Pera’s racket. The American seemed to have lost most of her confidence, which seemed surprising after she beat the Briton in Australia.
As Pera faded, all Konta needed to do was remain consistent and keep her own error count as low as possible. She did it admirably, breaking the American twice (the second time to love) en route to winning the set 6-1. The victory earns the Brit a second-round meeting with Carla Suarez Navarro, who beat Kateryna Bondarenko 3-6 6-3 6-3.
‘I was definitely excited to play her again,’ Konta told wtatennis.com. ‘I knew it was going to be a challenge, and I’m a big believer in personal growth and improvement, self-improvement, so I definitely took it as an opportunity to really do that.’
Konta continued, ‘even if I wasn’t going to get through the match with a win, I still wanted to make sure that I did more and just did a little bit better than last time.’
Muguruza through
On Doha’s main court, Garbine Muguruza earned safe passage to the third round with a comfortable 6-3 6-4 win over Duan Ying-Ying.
After a routine first set, it looked like the second set would be even easier for the Spaniard when she stormed into a 5-1 lead. However, she only won one point when she served for the match at 5-2 and she then squandered five match points during a crazy ninth game that lasted nearly ten minutes.
Muguruza eventually clinched victory in game ten by taking her eighth match point. It was an important win for the World No.4 after a right thigh injury sustained in Sydney disrupted her start to the season and weakened her Australian Open performance.
‘It was a very tough match. It doesn’t matter how many match points I had, but I won!’ Muguruza said in her on-court interview. “That’s the important part, and I’m so happy because it’s been so long since I’ve competed. It’s good to have a victory.”
Elsewhere in Doha, Madison Keys beat Qiang Wang 6-1 6-4, Kristina Mladenovic beat Peng Shuai 6-2 6-4, St Petersburg champion Petra Kvitova beat Cagla Buyukakcay 6-0 6-3 and Julia Georges beat Lucie Safarova 6-1 7-5.
