Venus Williams loses to Konta in Australian Open’s 1st round

Venus Williams of the United States makes 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.

Impressively calm and focused, Konta reeled off the next five games to put Williams on the ropes in the second, but the oldest competitor in this year’s draw demonstrated her trademark grit to whittle away at the deficit, closing to 5-2. He has said he’ll leave immediately if his wife, Kim, goes into labor in London with their first child.

“When the draw came out and I saw who I was playing, I thought ‘I just hope I stay out there more than an hour, ‘” Konta said after the match.

“Yeah, I had a few problems but, well, I think I’m recovered now”, she said of the foot problem, “so very good”.

The 22-year-old Spaniard retired during her first match at an Australian Open warmup tournament in Brisbane because of an injured left foot earlier this month but showed no signs of difficulty at Melbourne Park. The Eighth Seed struggled a lot on serve and was not able to move around the court with the Brit making the most of it. Breaking the Venus thrice in the second set, Konta completely dominated the set, hitting 10 winners with just 3 unforced errors. I’m hoping my phone hasn’t been buzzing in my bag.

Also on Tuesday, No. 3 Garbine Muguruza needed exactly an hour to beat Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit 6-0, 6-4; No. 11 Timea Bacsinszky advanced over Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 7-5; and No. 15 Madison Keys, a semifinalist previous year, had to save set points in the first before beating Zarina Diyas 7-6 (5), 6-1.

No. 21 Ekaterina Makarova opened with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Maddison Inglis.

A strong run in the third grand slam of the year might see her grace Centre Court at Wimbledon, however, even if the home of British tennis has less meaning to her than some of her compatriots. “Today I won”, she told the crowd after her win.

In the second, she kept her foot down and there was nothing the American could do – until she blocked Konta in the sixth game, serving for the match and a rare bagel.

Nineteen-year-old wild-card entry Noah Rubin got the biggest win of his career, upsetting 17th-seeded Benoit Paire of France 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5) for his first Grand Slam victory. “He’s young, but he’s one of the best young players in the world and he’s going to be around for a long time”.

“It was hot out there and I was playing an incredibly good player, but I felt I was playing at a good level”.

“I’m very satisfied with how I dealt with the situation”, Konta said afterwards.