The British No 1, a straight-sets victor in her opening match, eased through to the third round yesterday with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Caroline Garcia, of France.
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An early break of serve put 10th seed Konta in control of the first set and another helped the 25-year-old seal it in 38 minutes as Garcia became increasingly frustrated. “I’m here to compete and I’m really enjoying being part of the whole thing”, she said.
Watson failed to join Konta in the next phase of the women’s draw, losing 6-3 1-6 6-3 to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina. She was playing inspired tennis and had nothing to lose.
Seventh seed Madison Keys, of the United States of America, also progressed to the third round, though only after a nail-biting 7-5 6-7 (4) 7-6 (5) win against France’s Kristina Mladenovic.
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The decider featured five breaks of serve as both nations stayed in contention but Konta and Watson were unable to get over the line and Chinese Taipei prevailed 3-6 6-0 6-4. 7-5 victory that takes him into the last 16. I just wasn’t able to problem-solve during the match. I didn’t quite finish the points when I needed to on some short balls and made some bad unforced errors in key moments.
