Sharapova through to Australian Open’s 3rd round

Venus Williams of the United States hits a forehand return to Johanna Konta of Britain during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016.

Asked whether she might consider switching her allegiance back to Australia, Konta was blunt.

“When the draw came out and I saw who I was playing, I was just hoping to stay out there more than an hour”. But as she proved previous year, don’t count her out.

“You have to be proactive I think with things like this and go and speak to the players rather than them reading about it in the newspapers or, you know, listening to it on the TV or the radio”, he said. “We keep it at 30 seconds – I’m not crying for you to make this easier, I just need to let this out!'” The 14-time major winner’s only other first-round exit in a Grand Slam was at Wimbledon in 2013 when he lost in straight sets to No. 135-ranked Steve Darcis of Belgium.

She faces a potential quarterfinal match against Maria Sharapova, which would be a rematch of the 2015 final.

Grigor Dimitrov has struggled to a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 win over Marco Trungelliti of Argentina in a second-round match at Melbourne Park.

Seventh-seeded Kei Nishikori, the 2014 U.S. Open finalist, advanced to the third round in the men’s draw with a 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over Austin Krajicek.

American Lauren Davis will play Sharapova after progressing to the third round when her opponent Magdelena Rybarikova retired after losing the first set.

Venus is 0-2 this season but still seems capable of doing damage in the first week of Grand Slam events.

Indeed, this latest victory by Konta will give fans booking corporate hospitality for The Championships, Wimbledon more reason for excitement as she continues to be the flag-bearer for British women’s tennis.

In theory, this was an upset.

Kuznetsova, the 23rd seed, beat No. 2-ranked Simona Halep last week en route to winning the Sydney International title. The tale of the tape going in was powerfully in favor of Venus Williams. Konta won 25 of 52 points on Williams’ serve, but Williams was only able to win 18 points when Konta was serving.

It solidifies her position as Britain’s No 1 and, although coming against an out-of-sorts Williams, the win was built on a mixture of devastating groundstrokes and impressive defence. Not insignificantly, Venus has a 45-15 record at the Australian.

The BBC and BuzzFeed reports said 16 players had been repeatedly flagged to tennis authorities for suspicious performances, including a Grand Slam victor, and half of them were at this year’s Australian Open.

It would be illuminating to hear what the loser thought of the experience, perhaps what she thought of Konta’s game and her prospects over the rest of the fortnight.

Konta was making her Australian Open debut, but has played well in the past against top-10 opponents.

Many have questioned whether Nadal is a player on the wane whose Grand Slam winning days are behind him and some may see this defeat – only his second in the opening round of a Grand Slam – as further evidence of that.