KONTA A LUCKY LOSER DESPITE INJURY SCARE

JO KONTA suffered an injury scare ahead of the Australian Open that forced her to retire from a qualifier for the Sydney International — but she accepted a lucky loser spot for the main draw a few hours later. The British No 1 (below) tweaked her neck in the warm-up for her match against Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova before retiring hurt after just 18 minutes, when she was 4-1 down. Yet she recovered sufficiently during treatment immediately afterwards to take a place in the main draw, which came following the withdrawals of a number of top players. It means she meets world No 9 Kiki Bertens, a contest that will be a useful indicator of how well she is playing under new coach Dimitri Zavialoff. Konta has had some of her best results at the Australian Open, reaching the semi-finals in 2016 and quarter-finals in 2017, but she crashed out in the second round last year and has struggled for consistency since. Her start to 2019 has also been up-and-down, beating Sloane Stephens but losing to Ajla Tomljanovic in Brisbane, before beating Miriam Kolodziejova in Sydney qualifying and retiring against Alexandrova. According to Konta’s spokesperson, she ‘blocked her neck in the warm-up’, and she decided to halt the match so as not to aggravate the injury. In better news for the British players in action in Australia, Heather Watson progressed to the main draw of the Hobart International. The 26-year-old secured her spot with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Australian world No 381 Isabelle Wallace. ‘When I’m happy, I play better,’ said Watson.