Johanna Konta found herself on the wrong end of her game at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. The unforced errors and struggles against Anastasija Sevastova were too much to avoid a straight sets loss 6-3,7-5 at Porsche Arena in Stuttgart.
The two created a rivalry last season when the Latvian took Konta out of the U.S. Open before making a run to the quarterfinals of the grand slam. They met again in Beijing where the Brit got her revenge, defeating Sevastova in straight sets. The Miami Open champion had a lot of time on her hands to recuperate from such success this season that despite losing a game in the Fed Cup; she was more than ready to get the clay court season underway.
The world number seven knew that facing Sevastova wasn’t going to be a walk in the park after the 27-year-old handled her way to beating Samantha Stosur in a hard three setter. With no want of such a bout, Konta needed to be on her feet if she planned to stop the Latvian in her tracks.
The two started on serve fine but the fight from Sevastova grew into a solid force of offense that had Konta struggling. The Brit found herself down 3-1 but an important break in the fifth got her on track and eyeing to level the set. The unforced errors hindered her hopes to catching up with Sevastova and instead saw her in a tailspin. The Latvian ran with the momentum given to her to play for the set in the seventh pushing her forehand shots to finish off Konta by any means.
With the ball in her hands, the Brit avoided going down a set to give her life enough to recover from the deficit. After trying to argue a call early in the ninth, Sevastova ran with the game and went a set up on Konta completing it in 32 minutes. Though she had just 11 unforced errors in the opening set, Konta’s 23 points and inconsistency against Sevastova left her with the notion that more had to be done or face tremendous adversity going into the second.
A turnaround was in the works for the world number seven as she opened a 3-0 lead on the Latvian who was allowing her opponent to take off with the lead. It all came crashing for Konta as she saw the errors return allowing Sevastova moments to counteract the rallies. She overcame the three game gap and attempted to gain the break in the seventh to regain control. Just when it looked as if Konta would fall on serve, she delivered a pair of returns that beat Sevastova thereby leaving her out front.
Konta’s lead remained tedious as Sevastova vied to end the match if she was given to chance to proving it by matching up after eight. An important hold for the Brit arrived in the ninth in the shape of a complete shutout of the Latvian who was denied a single point in the game. The response wasn’t enough to stop Sevastova as she forced Konta to play on the set with the hope still alive of an upset.
The 27 year old got closer to getting the job done in the 11th with an important break to set her up with the ball in hand to serve for the match. She broke a brief tie landing an ace before reaching double match point. It was another quick strike that landed on the line giving Sevastova another upset of Konta in 1 hour and 22 minutes. It was one that had everything going right for the up and coming Latvian star who had 26 winners on the night and just one double fault all match. Her ability to capture a majority of break points played as one of many factors to her victory. “I had my game plan,” Sevastova said during her on court interview. “She (Konta) is an amazing player. She’s putting so much pressure on you so I’m happy that I stayed with my plan and didn’t fall back.” “I served pretty well which was an improvement and a very important thing and I just let my forehand go.”
She’ll move into the quarterfinals where she would face Romanian star Simona Halep who she hasn’t yet scored a game with but hoped to fare better with another step in the right direction.
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