Konta annoyed with media after latest defeat at French Open

Sussex's Johanna Konta will not look back on her latest early exit from the French Open with a great deal of fondness.
Johanna KontaJohanna Konta
Johanna Konta

The British No 1 is still awaiting a first main draw win at Roland Garros after tumbling out in the first round for the third year running, this time to world number 93 Yulia Putintseva.

She then had some choice words for the reporters who quizzed her about her poor record in Paris. “If every time you went in to work, let’s say for a few years your pieces of writing have just been crap every time you come into Roland Garros. And then your colleagues start to say ‘you really suck around that time’. How would you guys digest that. It’s not something I would like to buy into.However, you guys don’t make it easy.”

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Konta had insisted she has the game to be a success on clay. An unforced error count of 32 suggested otherwise as Putintseva, from Kazakhstan, ran out an ultimately comfortable 6-4 6-3 winner.

Nevertheless Konta, who has slipped to 22 in the world, will soon be on familiar territory when the build-up to the grasscourt season and Wimbledon, where she reached the semi-finals last year, begins. “I’m looking forward to the grass,” she added. “I’m looking forward to being at home. I love the lead-up tournaments to Wimbledon and then Wimbledon.

“I want to be back in a position where I’m required to play four, five matches back to back. That’s what I enjoy about the sport.”