Johanna Konta suffered a losing start to her 2020 campaign on Monday when she was beaten by Barbora Strycova in the first round of the Brisbane International.
The world no12, who struggled with a knee injury throughout 2019, lost 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to the Czech — her third defeat to the world no31, who had knocked her out in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon six months ago.
Trying to mix up her hard-hitting, aggressive approach with a more rounded game, Konta, 28, the tournament’s seventh seed, found it difficult to find any sort of rhythm in the first set. She rallied to take the match to a decider, but failed to keep up with Strycova.
Asked for the reason behind her 100 per cent record over Konta, Strycova, 33, said: “She’s such a great player and tough opponent, striking the ball very hard, so I always have to play my best tennis against her.
“The wind was always changing so you had to adjust a little bit.”
How much Konta was hampered by her previous injury remains to be seen.
Speaking last month, she had said: “I’ve been carrying a knee problem since the first week of the year and it was basically a case of just managing it through the season. Once we got to the grass it got worse and then at the US Open it felt significantly worse.”
Meanwhile, one of the stars of this year’s Wimbledon, 15-year-old Coco Gauff, picked up a main draw win in Auckland when she beat Viktoria Kuzmova 6-3, 6-1 in a tournament where Serena Williams is due to play for the first time since the US Open on Tuesday.
The 38-year-old, who will go for a 24th Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, plays Italian qualifier Camila Giorgi after Svetlana Kuznetsova pulled out through illness.
