After her stunning runs to the fourth round of last year’s US Open and to the Australian Open semi-final a few months ago it was extraordinary that Johanna Konta’s first round victory was her first ever at Wimbledon yesterday but that only underlines how rapid her rise has been.
The 25-year-old, who only got into this tournament with a wildcard last year, but is the first British woman for 32 years to be seeded this time around, sought to play that down in her own mind, however, as she prepared to meet a dangerous opponent in Puerto Rican Monica Puig who, like her, had reached the semi-finals at Eastbourne last week.
“I didn't really put that kind of pressure on myself to win a singles match here, I just wanted to go out there and perform the best that I could, to really deal with the situations that were at hand, try to do myself proud, really staying calm, staying present and fighting well,” Konta insisted.
What confronted her was all the more testing because having won the first set impressively, 6-1, on Tuesday evening and 2-1 up in the second, her match had been a victim of the weather at that stage and she faced another race against time during the relatively brief period that play was possible on the uncovered courts, having to recover from having her serve broken soon after the resumption before completing the job 7-5 in the second.
By contrast fellow Briton Heather Watson seemed to struggle with the rain interruptions as, after taking the first set 6-3, she lost the second to Germany’s Annika Beck 6-0 and was broken in the first game of the third before play, perhaps thankfully on her behalf, ended for the day.
Czech Petra Kvitova, the two time champion meanwhile cruised through, as did third seed Agnieska Radwanska.
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