Konta has swipe at press after early exit

JOHANNA Konta (right) will not look back on her latest early exit from the French Open with a great deal of fondness.

The British No1 is still awaiting a first main draw win at Roland Garros after tumbling out in the first round for the third year running, this time to world No 93 Yulia Putintseva.

She then had some choice words for the reporters who quizzed her about her poor record in Paris.

“You guys can answer this for me, then,” she said.

“Let’s say you went into work and for a few years your pieces of writing have just been rubbish every time when you come into Roland Garros. Right? Just rubbish.

“And then your colleagues start to say ‘ you know, you really failed around that ti me’. And that happens, you know, for a few years.

“How would you guys digest that, and would you feel any sort of kind of lingering ‘oh, you know what? I want to prove these people wrong’, but, you know, it’s just kind of lingering there.

“So it’s not something I would like to buy into. I don’t think I do. However, you guys don’t make it easy.”

Konta had insisted before the tournament that she has the game to be a success on clay.

An unforced error count of 32 suggested otherwise as Putintseva, from Kazakhstan, ran out an ultimately comfortable 6-4 6-3 winner.

Nevertheless Konta, who has slipped to 22 in the world, will soon be on familiar territory when the build-up to the grasscourt season and Wimbledon, where she reached the semi-finals last year, begins.

“I’m obviously looking forward to the grass,” she added. “I’m looking forward to being at home.

“I love the lead-up tournaments to Wimbledon and then Wimbledon, of course. And then I’ll be looking to play a strong and full hardcourt season in the US and then into Asia.

“I’m just going to keep working towards getting opportunities to play back-to-back matches.

“I want to be back in a position where I’m required to play four, five matches back to back.

“That’s what I enjoy about the sport and getting to the latter stages of tournaments. So I’ll keep working to get back to that position.”

Elsewhere, Jelena Ostapenko’s reign as French Open champion came crashing to a halt in the first round.

The Latvian, who was unseeded when she roared through the draw to claim her shock triumph last year, was beaten in straight sets by Ukrainian Kateryna Kozlova.

Ostapenko, seeded five, looked a shadow of the player on the Court Philippe Chatrier upon which she shone so brightly 12 months ago.

She contributed 13 double faults amid 48 unforced errors to tumble out 7-5 6-3 to the world No 66.

Venus Williams was also sent spinning out. The ninth seed, runner-up in Paris in 2002, was beaten 6-4 7-5 by Wang Qiang of China.