- British No1 beats American opponent 6-3, 6-3 in evening start
- Consistent serve sees Briton to comfortable victory in New York
- Next opponent is world No71 Tsvetana Pironkova
Johanna Konta is through to the second round of the US Open, the tournament that properly announced her arrival a year ago, when, ranked 94 in the world, she came within a few stray groundstrokes of making the quarter-finals.
She has risen 80 places since then and, in what should have been the last day match on the new Grandstand stadium but turned out to be an early-evening extra show, she beat the American Bethanie Mattek-Sands with a bit to spare, 6-3, 6-3 in an hour and 22 minutes.
The verdict of Great Britain’s Davis Cup captain, Leon Smith, who was courtside for Eurosport, was: “She yet again showed the level she can play, against a tricky opponent. She was dominant, serving particularly well throughout.”
In a sparsely populated but impressive new stadium (Phil Collins had pulled in a full house at nearby Arthur Ashe to inaugurate the opening of the new roof there ahead of Novak Djokovic’s match against Jerzy Janowicz), they had to generate their own energy.
Johanna Konta is through to the second round of the US Open, the tournament that properly announced her arrival a year ago, when, ranked 94 in the world, she came within a few stray groundstrokes of making the quarter-finals.
She has risen 80 places since then and, in what should have been the last day match on the new Grandstand stadium but turned out to be an early-evening extra show, she beat the American Bethanie Mattek-Sands with a bit to spare, 6-3, 6-3 in an hour and 22 minutes.
The verdict of Great Britain’s Davis Cup captain, Leon Smith, who was courtside for Eurosport, was: “She yet again showed the level she can play, against a tricky opponent. She was dominant, serving particularly well throughout.”
In a sparsely populated but impressive new stadium (Phil Collins had pulled in a full house at nearby Arthur Ashe to inaugurate the opening of the new roof there ahead of Novak Djokovic’s match against Jerzy Janowicz), they had to generate their own energy.
The level dipped a little in the second, although one glorious Konta lob in the fourth game lit up the echoing arena with the simplicity of its execution, leaving the American stranded at the net. Mattek-Sands, rattled, pushed a concluding backhand wide and Konta led 3-1.
Sticking to her regimented archer’s serve – each bounce plopped with care, the ball toss cutting a recurring arc and the racket smacking its target flat and hard – was enough to take her further clear.
Mattek-Sands, who partnered Jack Sock to beat Konta and Jamie Murray on their way to gold in the mixed doubles in Rio, fought hard to stay in the contest, mixing up her ground strokes to stretch her opponent laterally.
In the seventh game, she was heartened to see Konta land her third double fault, but the Archer got back in a groove to save five break points. Mattek-Sands tried all her tricks, from outrageous moon balls to viciously sliced backhands, and dragged her opponent into a five-deuce struggle before succumbing to Konta’s all-round power in the longest duel of the match.
Serving to stay in the tournament at 2-5, Mattek-Sands established a 30-love cushion but within moments she was saving her first match point. She overcame the anxiety of keeping the ball in play in several tough rallies, and held.
The match, though, was decided by Konta’s metronomic racket, and she made short work of serving out to love for an impressive win. It might have lacked the drama of earlier contests on day one, but the final backhand winner down the line did the job.
Later, sipping on a recovery drink in her prized Team GB mug from Rio, she seemed barely out of breath. Konta’s conditioning is spot-on, as is her mindset. Nothing disturbs her commitment to living “in the moment”.
Even though she has advanced considerably since her debut here last year, Konta refuses to be carried away by a single win at the start of a fortnight she hopes to finish.
“I was happy with how I was able to deal with things on my side, separating myself from the situation. Every first round, you have to find your feet and get into the rhythm of the tournament. With Bethanie, the more emotion, the more tension that comes in a match, the better she plays, the more inspired she plays. That was a big thing for me to do: to make it as businesslike as possible.”
It is not a unique approach in modern tennis – nor in sport in general – but Konta expresses this almost fierce determination to remain unmoved by circumstance better than most.
Paradoxically, the noisy, exciting US Open is her favourite tournament, rather than the restrained confines of the All England Club, where she has not done quite so well yet.
“I love the energy of the place,” she said. “It’s brilliant to be here for the two-and-a-half or three weeks that I hope for – but then it is definitely good to leave. I remember being on Ashe last year. There were planes going, there were sirens, there was a train going by, there was honking, there was talking. There was so much going on. It makes the whole vibe very infectious.”
While there weren’t many adults there, Konta stayed on to do selfies and autographs with an enthusiastic knot of young fans. Despite her appearance and demeanour of an automated professional, she is a warm character who could establish a wide supporter base if she can break into the top 10 and stay there.
Konta, a keen music fan, could just about hear the strains of Phil Collins on nearby Ashe, and said, “I kinda heard him, but not clear enough. Before going on, I heard him warming up, and I thought, oh my God, oh my God, please let us hear him while we’re on Grandstand. I do like him, yeah.”
And there’s another anomaly: the regimented and disciplined professional letting just a little bit of emotion seep through at the very moment when her focus was about to switch to her job.
Konta next plays the 28-year-old Bulgarian, Tsvetana Pironkova, ranked 71 in the world, who looked strong beating the Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano 6-1, 6-2
