The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Konta remains positive after shock exit at Australian Open
British No 1 believes she is still moving forward despite exit
Johanna Konta insisted her Australian Open loss to lucky loser Bernarda Pera was not a “massive catastrophe” as she contemplated an early flight home.
The ninth seed had been tipped as one of the contenders for the title in a wide open field after reaching the semi-finals and quarter-finals in the last two years.
Konta looked in good form in her opening win over Madison Brengle but struggled to find her game in very hot conditions at Melbourne Park and came up against an inspired opponent, who claimed a 6-4 7-5 victory.
Pera, a Croatian-born American ranked 123, had never even played in a grand slam tournament let alone won a match before arriving in Australia and appeared to be going home after losing to Viktorija Golubic in the final round of qualifying only to be given a second chance when Margarita Gasparyan withdrew.
There was no doubt the 23-year-old played well above her ranking but this was a poor performance from Konta and another sign of the anxiety issues that have stemmed from the five-match losing sequence with which she finished 2017.
Konta said: “I think she played very inspired and I didn’t quite do as much as I wanted. I think in the points I did OK, and I think I stayed quite strong. But I don’t think I did enough with my service games, and I don’t think I did enough with my returns.
“It’s a bit frustrating, but I’m still taking good stuff from this. I don’t feel, by any means, it’s a massive catastrophe.
“I play every event to be there until the end, so I definitely don’t want to be going home this early.
“But I think in terms of building myself back up again and then playing the way I want to play, I think I keep moving forward.”
Konta has been open about the struggles she went through at the end of last season and made an encouraging start to the new year by reaching the quarter-finals in Brisbane before a hip problem struck.
But here her tension was betrayed by a lack of clarity of thought, while she shanked two smashes, including one on match point, and mis-hit a serve so badly it landed on the baseline.
She looked like she might have dug herself out of trouble when she saved three match points at 5-3 and then broke Pera when she served for the match. But a Konta slip, her second of the match, contributed to Pera breaking again and this time she made no mistake.
Konta’s immediate plan was to head home before linking up with the Great Britain Fed Cup team for a week of Europe/Africa Zone competition early next month.