Johanna Konta crashes out in first round of Australian Open
Johanna Konta suffered her earliest Australian Open exit with a first-round loss to Tunisian Ons Jabeur at Melbourne Park.
The British number one was seeded 12th but expectations were tempered by the fact she had only played one match since a quarter-final exit at the US Open in early September.
A knee injury curtailed her season and Konta revealed last month that she might not even make the trip Down Under.
She will be heading home a lot sooner than she would have hoped after going down 6-4 6-2 to world number 78 Jabeur, who has the type of unpredictable game that even a match-tight Konta finds hard to deal with.
🇹🇳🇹🇳🇹🇳@Ons_Jabeur blasts 19 winners and secures the 6-4 6-2 upset over No. 12 Konta!#AO2020#AusOpenpic.twitter.com/SJlwZDKFvO
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 21, 2020
Indeed, Jabeur had beaten Konta in Eastbourne last summer and a tight first set went the way of the Tunisian when she broke in the 10th game, Konta paying the price for not making enough first serves.
The 28-year-old was not playing badly but she made loose errors at costly times and, after breaking serve to start the second set, lost four games in a row.
Konta had always made at least the second round in four previous appearances in the main draw at Melbourne Park, while this is the first time since a second-round loss to Garbine Mugurza here 12 months ago that she has not reached at least the quarter-finals of a slam.