Johanna Konta and Kyle Edmund disappoint on dismal day as four Brits are sent crashing out of Australian Open
Melbourne acted as the backdrop for both Johanna Konta and Kyle Edmund to announce themselves on the world stage, but hopes of emulating their runs to the semi-final were today quashed with straight-set defeats.
Konta produced a limp performance in exiting the first round in a match that lasted barely an hour, the wily Ons Jabeur creating discomfort for the No12 seed throughout in a 6-4, 6-2 defeat.
Meanwhile, Edmund was left wondering what might have been and cursing the Melbourne skies after letting a 5-2 lead overnight against Dusan Lajovic transform into a 7-6, 6-3, 7-6 defeat.
On a tough day from a British perspective, a spirited Katie Boulter succumbed to a 6-4, 7-5 defeat to one of the pre-tournament favourites Elina Svitolina, while Cameron Norrie was a fourth British loss following a near four-hour marathon against Pierre-Hugues Herbert, losing 7-5, 3-6, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. Harriet Dart, though, avoided a clean sweep of British defeats against Misaki Doi. The Londoner failed to convert two match points while serving at 6-5, but won eight of the last nine points in the decisive tiebreak for a 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 win against a player ranked nearly 100 places above her.
On paper, Konta should have been a comfortable winner but, curtailed by tendinitis in her knee during the latter part of the season, this was only her second competitive outing since the US Open. The one consolation was she was devoid of the pain which had led her to pull out of the preceding Adelaide International as a precaution, although whether she might have benefited from the game time was a moot point.
There were few points for her to defend, having bowed out in the second round a year ago before going on to enjoy the best Grand Slam year of her career, including two quarter-final berths and a run to the last four at the French Open.
“It’s important to recognise the season is long,” said Konta after losing to the world No78. “I’m not going to rush or sprint towards suddenly packing it all in. Things will come with time and I’m putting the right work in.
“Ultimately, the main thing was to start playing again. And how I felt out there is obviously a massive tick for me compared to where I was in September of last year. I know that by taking a decision to play here, I was opening myself up to potentially it not going well. But what was good today was my knee felt quite good, that’s a very positive thing for me.”
For Edmund, the result continued a pattern in which he has won just six Grand Slam matches since making the Australian Open semi-finals in 2018 and took his run to four first-round Grand Slam exits in his past six appearances.
Edmund, who drops to 65th in the world as a result, was heckled from the stands during his performance, one spectator shouting: “Book a flight home, Kyle”, while another said: “Hey Kyle, how do you lose a set when you’re 5-2 up?”
Afterwards, he said: “Normally, in the past, Dusan’s given away more cheap points, but today he was being more proactive than me. I found I was reacting a little bit too much to his play. I did my best, but I was second-best today.
“Out of the tournament, it’s difficult right now to look at positives.”
There were reasons to be positive for Boulter against No5 seed Svitolina, a two-time Grand Slam finalist last season, as the 23-year-old showed promising signs as she continues her comeback from a stress fracture in her back.
If anything, the scoreline arguably flattered Svitolina in a match where the players, despite a disparity of 312 places in the world rankings, were only really separated by a handful of points.
Boulter was let down by losing her serve in the final game of the first set and, while she broke back at the start of the second, Svitolina’s greater experience and match fitness came to the fore.
Norrie looked to be in the ascendancy of his match when Herbert received a second medical timeout while 2-1 down in sets and with a heavily strapped right thigh, but the Briton missed out in a fluctuating encounter.
Dart proved the one bright spark from a British perspective, carrying on her confidence from not dropping a set in qualifying for a first win in the main draw in Australia.
Come the end of a breathtaking match in which she had at one stage lost eight consecutive games, Doi then crumbled as she failed to make a 5-1 lead in the tiebreak count as her British opponent hit back.
