JOHANNA Konta is over the first hurdle at Wimbledon after she exacted swift revenge on her French Open conqueror Hsieh Su-wei and reached the second round.
Konta lost to world number 113 Hsieh at Roland Garros less than five weeks ago but a repeat never looked likely on Court One where she cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 victory.
There was also little sign of the spine injury that forced Konta to withdraw from Eastbourne last week, and the world No 7 will next face Croatian Donna Vekic or Russia’s Natalia Vikhlyantseva.
“I’m very happy to have come through that, she’s a very tricky player,” Konta told the BBC after her match.
“I lost a close match to her at the French Open so I was looking forward to playing her again and trying again to beat her. I’m happy to have come through that.”
Many experts have Konta down as a genuine contender for the title here following runs to the semi-finals of the Australian Open and the US Open last 16.
But despite her remarkable rise up the rankings, this was only Konta’s second singles win at Wimbledon in six appearances in the main draw.
The pressure of a home tournament is perhaps a primary factor and there was some evidence of nerves again, particularly early on when her usually dependable ground-shots regularly missed their mark.
But Konta also grew into the contest and by the end her serve and booming forehand were both firing, seemingly primed for more testing opponents to come.
Konta and Hsieh followed Rafael Nadal’s opening-round victory over John Millman and it was noticeable the arena was barely half full when the British number one walked out for the opening point.
Hsieh delivered three double faults in her first two service games and the Chinese Taipei player was punished in the second as a Konta drive-volley initiated the opening break.
Konta, however, was still finding her range too from the baseline and she gifted the break back when one forehand flew long and another drifted wide.
The Briton was still dominating the rallies though and when she found her spots, Hsieh had no answer as Konta won four games in a row to seal the set, the last with an excellent touch half-volley.
The momentum was established and Konta took five of the first six games in the second set before opening up two match points on Hsieh’s serve.
Hsieh saved both, and held, but the resistance was brief as Konta served out to love, confirming her victory with an ace after an hour and four minutes on court.
Meanwhile, Naomi Broady fell at Wimbledon’s first hurdle as the British No 2 went down in straight sets to Irina-Camelia Begu. The 27-year-old from Stockport failed to reach the second round for the fifth time in six visits to SW19 after a 6-4, 6-2 defeat.
Begu, the world No 64, was helped on her way to the first set with Broady’s serve letting her down and her error count making grim reading. And worse was to come when two double faults gifted the Romanian another break in the first game of the second set.
Begu did not look back, securing another break before serving out to end Broady’s hopes for another year.
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