Johanna Konta’s bid to win her first match at the French Open has failed after she crashed out 6-4, 6-3, to Yulia Putintseva in the first round.
The 22nd seed, who has now lost in the first round of the tournament four consecutive times, struggled for consistency in her game throughout the match. Hitting 32 unforced errors to 22 winners. Meanwhile Putintseva, who has won her 10th match on the tour this season, capitalized on the opportunity.
Konta, who struggled with her second serve, was far from her best in the encounter as she dropped her own serve four consecutive times to dash her hopes of reaching the second round. After retrieving one of the break in the first set to close the margin to 4-5, the British No.1 faltered once again after slamming a forehand shot into the net to gift Putintseva the opening set.
A similar trend occurred in the second with Konta’s mistakes costing her dearly. Initially it looked like she would regain some momentum after breaking straight away. However, another uncomfortable looking backhand error allowed her opponent to break back immediately. Two games later, Putintseva extended her lead to to 6-4, 3-1, with the help of a quick thinking forehand down the line. From then on, the Kazakh cruised towards the finish line. Sealing the match with the help of another Konta error.
Following the match, the British No.1 wasn’t afraid to express her feelings in her press conference. One journalist asked if she felt pressure concerning previous comments about her form on the clay.
“Well, you guys can answer this for me, then. If every time you went in to work, let’s say you went in to work because – obviously you travel, and let’s say for a few year’s your pieces of writing have just been crap every time you come in to Roland Garros. Right? Just crap. Any then you colleagues start to say ‘you know, you really such around that time.’ And that happens for a few year’s.” She started.
“How would you guys digest that, and would you feel any sort of kind of back, lingering kind of, ‘oh, you know what? I want to prove those bastards wrong’, but it’s just kind of lingering there.
“So it’s not something I would like to buy into, and I don’t think I do. However, you guys (the media) don’t make it easy.”
In the second round, Putinseva will take on Jennifer Brady. The American thrashed wildcard entrant Amandine Hesse 6-1, 6-1.
