Australian Open: Defeat is not a massive catastrophe, insists Johanna Konta

Britain's Johanna Konta

Johanna Konta insisted her 6-4, 7-5 Australian Open loss to lucky loser Bernarda Pera was not a massive catastrophe as she contemplated an early flight home. "I think she played very inspired and I didn't quite do as much as I wanted. I think in the points I did okay, and I think I stayed quite strong. But I don't think I did enough with my service games, and I don't think I did enough with my returns.

"It's a bit frustrating, but I'm still taking good stuff from this. I don't feel, by any means, it's a massive catastrophe. I play every event to be there until the end, so I definitely don't want to be going home this early.

"But I think in terms of building myself back up again and then playing the way I want to play, I think I keep moving forward."
Meanwhile, Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza refused to blame her heat-blistered feet as she became the biggest casualty so far yesterday. The third seed lost 7-6, 6-4 to Hsieh Su-wei from Taiwan. "I think the surface of the court, I don't know how much heat, it's terrible, very hot, and it's easy to get blisters and red," she said. "I don't think that was the reason why it didn't go my way. It was already wrapped (foot), but I started to feel a blister was coming, and I'd rather prevent it than having the problem after."

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