By Chris Oddo | Monday, January 18, 2016
Venus Williams became the highest seed to fall in Melbourne as she was beat to the punch by an opportunistic Johanna Konta on Day 2.
Photo Source: Mark Peterson/Corleve
Johanna Konta is starting to make a habit of knocking off top players early in majors. Last year at the U.S. Open the Brit felled Garbine Muguruza in the second round. On Tuesday she knocked off 8th-seeded Venus Williams a round earlier.
More: Muguruza Starts with a Bang
Konta’s 6-4, 6-2 victory marks her fourth top-10 win since the beginning of 2015. The 24-year-old was in the driver’s seat from the onset, and only needed to stave off a pair of late Williams rallies in each set to cruise to victory in just 71 minutes.
Williams, who was taped on the thigh and also on her right arm, appeared to be at less than 100 percent, particularly in the first set when her first serves were clocked in the 80’s as Konta built a 5-2 lead.
Konta would close the first set with an ace and rush out to a 5-0 lead in set two before Williams managed a pair of games to make it interesting.
But Konta would close proceedings on her first match point on a Williams netted backhand to book her spot in round two.
It was a good day for the rest of the seeds on the women’s side. 9th-seeded Karolina Pliskova, 11th-seeded Timea Bacsinszky, 15th-seeded Madison Keys, 18th-seeded Elina Svitolina, 19th-seeded Jelena Jankovic and 21st-seeded Ekaterina Makarova were all winners in straight sets.
Konta will face either Carina Witthoeft or Zheng Saisai in the second round.