Johanna Konta’s start and finish came at the same time on the grounds of Roland Garros Tuesday. She was upset in the opening round of the French Open by Su-Wei Hsieh who took it to her in a 1-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 match on Court Phillipe Chatrier.
The two met when they were up and coming stars in the tennis world and stand even at one win over the other. The world number eight planned to overtake her Taiwanese rival with an increase of her skills and a fifth appearance at Roland Garros. The Brit hasn’t had a strong time on clay but would give it her all to vie for not only another career title but one of the biggest that her path begins towards.
She found herself on a clean tear in the opening set, building herself a solid three game led against Hsieh. She won 13 of the first 15 points in the game indicating not only her dominance but a clear show of jitters on the other end of the court. it wasn’t till the fourth that she got on the board with a service hold against Konta ending the streak but not the challenge. Konta regained her three-game margin over Hsieh in order to keep some comfort prior to reaching the set.
Konta found herself serving for the set after another return game against the struggling Taiwanese player came to pass in the form of a 5-1 rout. The seventh was a smooth conclusion for the Brit reaching three set points before one last hurrah came to occur. It was the final point she would earn for herself as the eighth seed put the set to rest after 26 minutes. Konta had a 93 percent success rate on the serve with eight winners. It was delivering plenty of damage to Hsieh who very little to show winning 29 percent of first serve points and 44 on the second serve.
The need for improvement was the mission for the 30-year-old but playing a level similar to Konta’s was a quite a distance on the spectrum. She didn’t let that sit long in her head and instead used the fact of staying together on serve to the one out front every time. She took the lead in the third setting the pace for Konta to match her going on. It was a tight second set through six as Konta matched the wins of her opponent staying neck and neck with her.
A chance in the eighth came to Hsieh when she had three break points on Konta to open the gap. Instead of closing things out, her offense had a few wrong moves that extended the life of the Brit. They went to deuce where the game points switched between the two five times. It was at that point Konta gripped her way to securing the point and maintaining the level pegging she desired at that point.
Her desire turned into a different matter as Hsieh saw her way to the end game of the set leading 5-4 with a chance to level the match. The pressure was on Konta to keep a chance at ending her day but only if she managed to level the score once more. Her service hold was good enough to send things into extra frames but added nerves to both sides. For Konta, the nerves got to her on the break chance that Hsieh didn’t want give up. She took defense on serve and produced the needed skill to lead at the critical point to send the match forward.
She got the key victory in the 12th that sent the two to a dramatic tiebreaker but the positive response from Hsieh was not down. She proved her worth in the race to seven taking Konta for a 5-0 run after leveling at two all to give her the win and a chance for the match going into the third. It took one hour and seven minutes in a game that saw both sides on an even keel which was nothing but good news for the Taiwanese star.
She and Konta stayed within reach of one another but a key break in the set allowed Hsieh to be the one that had her opponent in real trouble. The point of her keeping ahead by a game put immense pressure on the Brit who suddenly saw herself in trouble. The seventh seed sat down two games in the ninth with Hsieh knocking on a chance for an upset. Konta wouldn’t let her do it on serve putting together a shutout in the game that had her back in reach of tying things up once more.
Hsieh still had the opportunities especially with the serve in hand to end the match. She found herself slightly down but rallied to force deuce with Konta once more. Four breaks were played in a tug of war fight but on a second chance for match point Hsieh got the job done with Konta landing another unforced error that ended her start to the grand slam in 2 hour and 15 minutes. It was her 38th of the day which proved to be too many to overcome.
Hsieh found ways to improve in the match while dealing with the endurance of the opening round. She and Konta both showed signs of struggle but her way to knocking out a top ten seed but her confidence levels in new territory. She’d hope to use it to take on the winner between American Taylor Townsend and Japan’s Miyu Kato on Thursday.
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