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With many of her biggest rivals absent in Paris, Johanna Konta is well poised to throw her hat into the ring

Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova both won't feature at this year's tournament while Angelique Kerber was sent home after the first-round. Konta now stands a genuine chance of success

Paul Newman
Paris
Monday 29 May 2017 19:35 BST
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Johanna Konta takes on Taiwan’s Su-Wei Hsieh in the first round
Johanna Konta takes on Taiwan’s Su-Wei Hsieh in the first round

Johanna Konta has all but perfected the art of staying inside her “bubble”, paying little attention to those events over which she has no control, but surely even the 26-year-old Briton will have noticed the gaping spaces that have opened up around her at the top of the women’s game.

Konta plays her first match here at the French Open on Tuesday against Taiwan’s Su-Wei Hsieh in the knowledge that three of the sport’s biggest names are already out of contention.

Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, who between them have lifted the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen four times in the last five years, are both absent, the American because she is pregnant and the Russian because she was declined a wild card following her return from suspension. Meanwhile the world No 1, Angelique Kerber, who has been in poor form, is on her way home following her first-round defeat to Ekaterina Makarova.

Of the 12 women who have won the title here since the turn of the century, only two are still in the field. Garbine Muguruza began the defence of her title by beating the 2010 winner, Francesca Schiavone, 6-2, 6-4, while Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2009 champion, is through to a second-round meeting with Oceane Dodin. The other six 21st century champions - Mary Pierce, Jennifer Capriati, Justine Henin, Anastasia Myskina, Ana Ivanovic and Li Na – have all retired.

Several other current top 10 players have also been struggling in recent weeks. Karolina Pliskova (world No 3) has not made a semi-final in any of her four clay-court tournaments, Muguruza (No 5) had won only three matches on the surface before arriving here, Dominika Cibulkova (No 7) had won just one and Agnieszka Radwanska (No 10) none.

Simona Halep (No 4), the champion in Madrid and runner-up in Rome, appears to be the only long-time member of the top 10 playing anywhere near her best. The other form players of recent weeks have been 22-year-old Elina Svitolina (No 6), who won the clay-court tournaments in Istanbul and Rome, Kristina Mladenovic (No 14), who was the beaten finalist in Madrid, and Kiki Bertens (No 18), who won the title in Nuremberg and also performed well in Madrid and Rome.

Kerber was knocked out in the first round 

Konta, nevertheless, believes that the depth of women’s tennis is “incredibly strong”.

“The level is really high and there are also a lot of girls who have been playing very, very well in the last few weeks on this surface,” she said. “I don’t necessarily think it’s really relevant to see past Grand Slams or how past tournaments went. I think a lot of it will be decided on the day.”

Although Konta has never gone past the first round in the main draw here and has won only one of her last four matches on clay, but the world No 8 insisted: “In terms of my game style and my physical abilities I think there’s no reason why I can’t adapt well to the surface.”

Muguruza was pleased to come through what was potentially a tricky opening match, even if 36-year-old Schiavone is not the force she was. On another hot and humid day in the French capital the defending champion kept her cool throughout.

Konta heads into the French Open in a promising position

“I’m happy that I managed to stay composed out there, because I wasn’t sure how I was going to react again on the centre court, playing against an ex-champion,” Muguruza said afterwards.

“I knew at some point that she was going to come up with some great shots. I also knew I was going to be tense and nervous, and I think that was the moment. I just knew it was going to happen. I kind of accepted that and just tried to figure out how I could turn things around.”

Mladenovic is aiming to become only the second home-grown women’s champion here in the last half century following Pierce’s triumph in 2000. Many French players have struggled on these courts under the weight of national expectation, but Mladenovic’s problem against Jennifer Brady, the world No 88, was a back injury which is likely to pose a serious threat to her progress.

Muguruza is defending her French title

Having lost the first three games, Mladenovic left the court for treatment. She saved a break point in the following game but was unable to salvage the first set.

When Mladenovic took the second set it seemed that the 24-year-old Frenchwoman had ridden out the storm, but Brady went 3-0 up again in the decider. However, to the crowd’s rising chant of “Kiki! Kiki!” – Mladenovic’s nickname – the world No 14 recovered to win 3-6, 6-3, 9-7 after nearly three hours, despite twice failing to serve out for victory.

“I promise I will come back [for my second-round match] and fight to the end,” a tearful Mladenovic said in her on-court interview at the end.

Bertens, who enjoyed the best fortnight of her career when she reached the semi-finals here 12 months ago, recovered from a slow start to beat Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. By the end the 25-year-old Dutchwoman was striking the ball with all the confidence of a woman who loves playing on this surface.

Pliskova’s big-serving and big-hitting game is more suited to faster courts. In her five previous appearances here she had won only two matches, but she had too much for Saisai Zheng, winning 7-5, 6-2.

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