No faint heart /Konta shows no weakness as she advances in New York
Johanna Konta breezed through her opening match at the Western & Southern Open yesterday, two weeks after suffering heart palpitations during a tournament in Kentucky.
The British No 1 was a 6-2, 6-0 winner over Kirsten Flipkens in the last 32 in New York, advancing without facing a single break point in the match. It was Konta’s first win since the WTA Tour restarted.
“I’m really pleased to have got a win,” Konta said. “It’s the first one since Monterrey, which was six months ago, a long time ago.”
The 29-year-old was competing only a fortnight after she had to seek medical help during her first-round exit at the Lexington Open, something she said she had experienced before.
“I haven’t gone for any more tests since then,” she said. “I think they will happen more when I’m at home...
“Obviously I had two episodes reasonably close together, but before that I hadn’t experienced one since 2018. So I think there is plenty of room to give it when it probably won’t happen, knock on wood, for a long time again.”
Upsets marked the women’s event in New York on Sunday. Top seed Karolina Pliskova and second seed Sofia Kenin were knocked out in the second round.
The pair having had byes into the last 32, Czech Pliskova was toppled 7-5, 6-4 by world No 41 Russian Veronika Kudermetova, while Kenin
fell 6-1, 7-6 (7) to French 30-year-old Alize Cornet, ranked 60th in the world.
In another surprise result, tenth-seed Czech Marketa Vondrousova lost her first round match to 67th-ranked German 32-year-old Laura Siegemund, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4.
Also in the first round, 12th seed Anett Kontaveit prevailed 6-3, 6-1 over Daria Kasatkina, while 14th-seeded Belgian Elise Mertens downed Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson 6-0, 6-2.
In the second round of the men’s tournament, Dan Evans was beaten in straight sets by Milos Raonic. The 2016 Wimbledon finalist hit 23 aces on his way to recording a 6-3, 7-5 victory.
World No 28 Evans had seen off tenth seed Andrey Rublev in the first round but failed to progress into round three – where there had been a potential all-british meeting with Andy Murray.