Johanna Konta ready to prove clay credentials as she bemoans Fed Cup reaction
Johanna Konta is determined to prove herself as a capable clay-court player after winning her first match in Madrid at the third attempt, while she revealed her disappointment at the response to Great Britains Fed Cup defeat at the hands of Japan.
The British No. 1 has struggled on the dirt at WTA Tour level and won just two matches last season, but after her 6-4 7-5 victory over Magdaléna Rybarikova, she can now match that total with a second-round win at the Caja Magica – and with few points to defend, its a good opportunity to return to the worlds top-20.
Ive never believed that Im not good on this surface, she said after her win on Sunday night.
Actually my results before I started doing well on the WTA tour, most of my ITF tournaments were actually on the clay, and I won a lot of matches there and qualified for two grand slams; one of them was the US Open and the other one was the French Open.
I enjoy playing on this surface and I believe I can play well on it and I try and give myself every chance of playing lots of matches on it.
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Though a tie with world No. 98 Bernarda Pera might look an easy draw on paper, Konta knows full well just how tough it will be against the American – a player she has already met twice in 2018.
Theres no easy draw, she added.
Peras an incredibly good player and I lost to her in the Australian Open and I had a very tough match against her in Doha so theres definitely no easy draw here as you can see with match-ups from the first round get-go.
Konta seemed to have gained momentum from Britains Fed Cup tie with Japan. Despite defeat, the Briton won both of her matches, including a fine victory over Naomi Osaka, and carried that form into Madrid.
Though she was pleased from her own perspective, the 26-year-old bemoaned the attitudes shown towards that loss and insists Anne Keothavongs outfit deserve more credit.
For sure, the Fed Cup is a tricky one in that sense, she continued. Id won both my matches but wed lost the tie. It was bizarre experiencing a feeling of loss when I hadnt lost a tie in the singles. Losing the doubles was quite a tough one for the whole team to take.
I think unfortunately the way the format is of Fed Cup, outside of the World Group II, I dont think enough credit is given to the difficulty of the zone playoff and the amount of matches we have to play in a week in succession.
And also just acknowledging how difficult a zone we are in being in the Europe/Africa zone. As we know, a massive chunk of the tour is European so the depth in field is massively strong. I mean just to give you an example next year we have the likes of Russia and the Ukraine back in the zone.
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The fact that I think weve qualified out of that and out ourselves into a World Group II play-off four times out of the last seven years or something.
I mean thats an incredible effort, and we keep knocking on that door, so sooner or later we are going to knock it down.
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