Johanna Konta was a mess from start to finish at the Western and Southern Open Monday night. The Brit who came off a disastrous end in Montreal carried it along committing numerous double faults and errors off the forehand that gave Aryna Sabalenka a huge win in a hard fought three setter 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Stadium Three at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
The Belorussian came off a huge run in Montreal where she gave the world number two an early defeat before going into the round of sixteen where she met her match against Elise Mertens. While her journey in the tournament seemed to be stronger, Konta had a troubling finish to hers unable to get up speed against Svitolina in the fourth round. With some days off, the players would try to get on the right foot and make their opening round match off to a positive start.
They kept on serve with Sabalenka making her mark to start the set with Konta in tow. The Brit clearly struggled with the second serve that got her trouble in the fourth handing the 20-year-old a chance on deuce. She recovered with the strong first serve landing an ace before leveling the score to maintain serve. The Brit’s offense began to improve keeping the first serve high resulted in the first break going to her in the seventh. When trying to consolidate her lead with a hold of serve, Sabalenka wouldn’t allow that to happen to earn a chance on deuce before breaking back.
They continued to own one another giving the lead to Konta after nine where she tried to end the breaks and lock down her service game to clinch the set. Sabalenka went to great lengths to keep herself going setting up great returns that gave her a break point opportunity. She couldn’t keep the rally alive with a run after a cross-court hit from Konta that put them to deuce.
After four breaks it came to the Brit putting in a lot on the returns to lead after 57 minutes. Her serve finished with 64 percent success landing 13 winners with eight unforced errors. While she was beaten at the net, having the momentum was key to playing out the set her way. She came out with a hold that matched Sabalenka’s before earning a break to love to lead again. Konta added a serve to love gaining a 3-1 lead before the Belorussian scored her own to cut the margin down to one.
Konta’s offense began to disappear, resulting in Sabalenka taking control of the lead after the seventh. Too many double faults from the Brit caused her to give up too much ground needing to regroup fast as she served down a game. She committed two in the eighth that gave her opponent all the room to finish comfortably where victory in the ninth set up a pivotal third set after 34 minutes. Sabalenka served 86 percent with a massive push against her struggling opponent that put pressure on the Brit with the hope to keep on it.
It didn’t go that way as Konta fought on to keep the score level through four before taking her to hold back into the fifth needing the lead to pressure the Belorussian. Getting another break from her at this stage proved difficult as Sabalenka stayed tight ready to go all the way to win it. She gained a 4-3 lead with Konta committing a ninth double fault that really took a toll on her serve that sat at 58 percent. She was running out of time as Sabalenka captured the eighth ready to play for the match. The Belorussian didn’t get the chance to play as the Brit’s forehand dragged along to rack up a couple of errors before double faulting a tenth time. It gave the 20-year-old match point but she lost it on bad returns that allowed the game to go to deuce. Konta got the chance to put her best foot forward saving three match points to go to ten where she would still have to face Sabalenka serving for a spot in the second round.
She held to reach a fourth attempt with a two points margin over Konta to conclude the match with a final error from the Brit ending 2 hours and 25 minutes. Her strategy to keep the main offense of her game better than her opponent paid off winning on 71 percent of points on the first serve with five aces coming from her end. Konta had 10 double faults to finish her tournament with nine coming in the last two sets. With her needing to smooth out the problems, the 20-year-old would prepare for her second round match against the winner of Karolina Pliskova and Agnieszka Radwanska.
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