Konta takes positives despite defeat

Johanna Konta refused to dwell on what might have been as she suffered a heartbreaking end to her great run at the US Open.

The 21-year-old British number five had beaten four higher-ranked players to come through qualifying and reach the second round at Flushing Meadows, where she met Belarusian Olga Govortsova. Konta began brilliantly and then recovered from losing the second set to lead 5-2 in the decider, but twice was broken serving for the match and ended up losing 2-6 6-2 7-5.

Konta said: "My whole trip to the US has been quite full on, I've played a lot of matches, which is a good thing. Obviously I would have liked to have made it one more but I think there's a lot of positives from this tournament for me."

She went on: "I believe she raised her level and I unfortunately didn't. I wasn't moving as well as I would have liked and I wasn't serving as well as I would have liked, but credit to her. She played a very solid five games.

"I do not feel, coming off the court, that I let it go. I will speak to (coach) Louis (Cayer) and I will do things differently. I have to improve from every match, win or lose.

"But it's definitely positive. I had three very tough rounds in qualifying and this was my first grand slam qualifying event ever, Wimbledon was my first grand slam, so I do think I'm heading in the right direction and picking up on things quickly."

Konta raced out of the blocks to win the first four games, but Govortsova got a foothold in the match at the end of the first set and then piled on the pressure at the start of the second.

Konta began to make more mistakes but took a bathroom break at the end of the second set, composed herself and came out firing once more.

Govortsova looked to be the one getting tight on her serve and she trailed by two breaks at 3-0 and then 5-2 in the third set, but Konta just could not get over the line.

The 21-year-old will now head home to Eastbourne and plans to play next at the ITF tournament in Shrewsbury next month.