French Open 2019: Konta cruises to victory in opening round
Johanna Konta had her opening round figured out to finish on a quick note at the French Open on Monday. The British star, who was on fire in clay court action, added another notch to her success by taking out German qualifier Antonia Lottner 6-4, 6-4 on Court 7 on the grounds of Roland Garros.
Making her fifth appearance into the main draw, the Brit, who came off a terrific run in Rome, showed her strong preparations to climb back into the top ranks of the sport. The 28-year-old, who had a dismal start to the season, clearly revved things up to be in shape for the red clay courts of Paris and put on a good show. Facing the German qualifier gave her more than a fair shot at conducting the match how she wanted it to go.
The Brit didn’t expect to be broken to start the match but didn’t let the pressure from Lottner faze her. She answered with a break back to love before adding another shutout for the serve to love. The double break made it 3-1 for Konta who quickly got into gear. Lottner challenged in the fifth, taking a 40-0 run before Konta fought back. Despite coming up short, she returned the break back to keep the German two games back.
Konta returned the pace to hold serve despite having to deal with some adversity on deuce. Lottner found her first comfortable service game before consolidating it with a break in the ninth. Konta knew that letting Lottner force the set was not what she had in mind. She had to rally back from 15-40 to force deuce and gain the first AD point that gave her the set that took 40 minutes to earn. Konta averaged well on serve, winning 18 of 29 and returning near the same which put a beating on Lottner’s offense.
She found a way to move better in the second, following the Brit who opened service in the set. They ran comfortably through eight games before a gritty fight in the ninth remained in Konta’s hands. The 28-year-old got the leverage needed just in time where she opened to 40-15 with two match points to end the German’s run in 80 minutes.
With the 26th seed dusting off a quick day on court, she’ll look to conduct another similar result when she faces American Lauren Davis in the second round this week.