Upbeat Konta bidding to bring positive vibes to Fed Cup promotion showdown

● British No 1 feels good about form ● Norrie loses in Monte Carlo last 16

Johanna Konta insists she is enjoying her tennis despite slipping down the WTA rankings over the past year.

Konta was in the world’s top 10 at the beginning of 2018 but now sits 46th, although she remains Great Britain’s topranked female player.

The 2017 Wimbledon semifinalist will lead the British team’s push for Fed Cup promotion when Anne Keothavong’s side take on Kazakhstan in London starting this afternoon.

Victory would put Britain among the eight teams in World Group II, with another eight above them competing for the overall title, although a potential format change means the prize on offer could be even bigger.

It is the fifth time in eight yearsthatbritainhavereached the play-off but the first time in that period that the match will be held at home, and Konta is bullish about her own form heading into the encounter having started working with new coach Dimitri Zavialoff in October.

“Overall, I feel good about the work I am putting in with my own team,” she told BBC Sport.

“I am enjoying my tennis and enjoying my life, so it’s a good position to be in.”

Konta is joined by Katie Boulter, Heather Watson, Harriet Dart and Katie Swan in the British team.

Watson is back in the fold having missed February’s Europe/africa Zone roundrobin in Bath through illness.

“I was the most ill I’ve been in my life. It was dreadful,”

0 Johanna Konta limbers up ahead of today’s Fed Cup clash with Kazakhstan in London as Britain target promotion to World Group II.

Watson said. “I had a temperature, I was vomiting, I was coughing – I even damaged a rib from coughing too much.

“I was there but I was bedbound the whole time. I just hoped that each day I could get better so I could go and even just support.

“It was a shame because I have played in the Fed Cup for so many years and this was the first time it was at home. I was really sad to miss it.

“I will at least be courtside this time around and will hopefully get to play because that would be really special to play at home.”

Konta also hopes the home crowd can play its part, as it did when she fought fatigue during February’s clash with

Serbia. She added: “The home support lends you energy when you need it. You really feed off their emotions and their desires for you.”

Meanwhile, in Monte Carlo, British No 2 Cameron Norrie was beaten in straight sets 6-2, 7-5 by Italian qualifier Lorenzo Sonego in their third-round match at the Rolex Monte-carlo Masters.

The 23-year-old, ranked 56 in the world, had progressed to the last 16 after a hard-fought victoryoverhungary’smarton Fucsovics.

However, Norrie was soon on the back foot against Sonego, the world number 96, who delivered two early service breaks to take control of the opening set at 4-0.

Norrie produced a recovery in the second set, having trailed 3-1 to level at 5-5, but Sonego rallied to immediately break back before going on to close out victory with a love service game and secure a place in the quarter-finals.

Defending champion Rafael Nadal and world No 1 Novak Djokovic ground their way relentlessly into the quarterfinals, remaining on course to meet in the final of the claycourt tournament they’ve long dominated.

The two rivals, who share 32 Grand Slam titles, could meet for a 54th time. They have won every tournament here since 2005 except for 2014. Nadal has won it a record 11 times overall, but Djokovic ended

his 46-match winning streak in the 2013 edition and added another title two years later.

Nadal has won the last three editions, though, including last year’s without dropping a set.

After the 15-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic beat unseeded American Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-0, the 17-time major winner Nadal handed Grigor Dimitrov yet another defeat, beating him 6-4, 6-1 in a repeat score of last year’s semifinal between the two.

Nadal will play Guido Pella, having won both previous matches against the unseeded Argentine.

Djokovic will take on 10th seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia.