Konta eases past American Brengle to book second round place in Melbourne
The British number one won 6-1 6-3.
Johanna Konta eased into the second round of the Australian Open – but is still lamenting her forgotten blueberries.
The ninth seed has a fine record at Melbourne Park having reached the semi-finals and quarter-finals the last two years and is one of a whole raft of contenders for the women’s title.
She was far too good for 90th-ranked American Madison Brengle, hitting 37 winners and eight aces in a 6-3 6-1 victory that lasted only an hour and six minutes.
“Oh, my goodness, I don’t want to talk about it,” she said. “Honestly. I messaged everybody. Literally everybody on my team. Has this happened to anyone else?
“I went to the supermarket to buy blueberries. I only bought blueberries, two punnets. I left two punnets of blueberries there. It’s five dollars I won’t get back. It’s actually more the betrayal in my own mind I feel so upset about. I was so sad.
“Clearly I’m not over the blueberry debacle. No, I’m happy to come through today and I’m just looking forward to playing again on Thursday. I now need to go again to buy blueberries.”
Fortunately Konta was a lot more focused on Hisense Arena and set about overpowering Brengle, the last player to beat Serena Williams in Auckland last January, whose powder puff serve in particular took a battering.
The British number one admitted on the eve of the tournament that, alongside new coach Michael Joyce, she is still working through the anxiety issues that developed during a five-match losing run to end last season.
There were signs of tension from Konta in a number of wild errors in the first set but Brengle’s serve was under constant pressure and, aside from a poor game when she served for it at 5-2, Konta’s serve was working very nicely.
The pair are good friends and share a love of books but Konta grew increasingly ruthless and raced through the second set to set up a second-round clash with another American, 123rd-ranked lucky loser Bernarda Pera.
“I was actually really enjoying being out there,” said Konta.
“It was a nice day. It was sunny. It was quite a full stadium. I kind of tried to absorb the atmosphere a little bit.
“I was really excited to play. I was really looking forward to playing her. She brings different sorts of difficulties. I thought it was a great first round for me to fight through and battle through and stay strong in the way I wanted to play out there. And I feel I did that.”
Konta, though, who spent her formative years in Australia, is confident she will not let conditions affect her.
She said: “I think I take it in my stride. I know it’s a part of it. Everyone who comes here know that it’s going to happen at one point or another.