Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
KONTA HAS THE HEART FOR WIN
JO KONTA put her heart scare behind her to race to her first win since March at the Western & Southern
Open in New York.
The British No.1 lost her opening match after lockdown at the Lexington Open earlier this month and reported she had suffered “heart palpitations” for the fourth time.
But playing in the midday heat at Flushing Meadow – where the US
Open will be staged next week – the former Wimbledon semi-finalist won the final 11 games to beat world No.79 Kirsten Flipkens 6-2 6-0 in 63 minutes.
The world No.15 only dropped six points on her serve and made six breaks in only her fourth win of 2020.
It was also her first win with new coach Thomas Hogstedt.
“I am pleased to have got a win,” said Konta, 29. “It’s the first one since Monterrey, which was six months ago, so it was a long time ago.
“There were some close games, but the majority of the games ended up going my way so it did end up being reasonably fast.”
Konta, who faces former world No.2 Vera Zvonareva in the next round, insisted she was relaxed about the heart problem which saw her feeling “lightheaded” while losing to world No. 48 Marie Bouzkova in Kentucky.
“I haven’t gone for anymore tests since then,” she added. “They will happen more when I am at home.
“I had two episodes recently close together but, before that, I hadn’t experienced it since 2018, so I think there is plenty of room. I am definitely looking into different ways of being able to monitor it.”
Dan Evans (above) was blown out of the tournament by the big serve of Milos Raonic as the Canadian won
6-3 7-5. The former Wimbledon finalist, who has not cut his hair since January, sent down 23 aces and won 33 of 37 points on the first serve. The British No.1 had beaten No.10 seed Andrey Rublev in the first round.
Third seed Daniil Medvedev launched the defence of his Western and Southern Open title with a
6-4 6-4 second-round win over Marcos Giron.
This tournament is usually held in Cincinnati, but has been moved to create a two-tournament safety bubble including next week’s US Open.