By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Lucky loser Bernarda Pera stunned 2016 Australian Open semifinalist Johanna Konta, 6-4, 7-5.
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
A rocket return came right back at Johanna Konta, who slid near the baseline and crumbled to the court before she could complete a swing in response.
American lucky loser Bernarda Pera displaced the ninth seed from the baseline and bounced her right out of this Australian Open in stunning fashion.
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Contesting her first Tour-level main draw, the 123rd-ranked Pera shocked the 2017 Wimbledon semifinalist, 6-4, 7-5, to roar into the Australian Open third round.
Ranked No. 318 at the start of the 2017 season, Pera took the court with about $159,000 in career prize earnings and has already exceeded that total with this magical Melbourne run.
It's the first time in three Australian Open appearances Konta failed to reach the second week. She joins fifth-seeded Venus Williams, 10th-seeded CoCo Vandeweghe, 11th-seeded Kristina Mladenovic, 12th-seeded Julia Goerges, 13th-seeded US Open champion Sloane Stephens, 14th-seeded Anastasija Sevastova and 15th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in bowing out before the third round.
"I think she played very inspired throughout the whole way, and I think I didn't do enough at the beginning when I had little windows of kind of putting kind of my stamp on the match," Konta said. "I felt I didn't quite get enough into the match to be able to, yeah, to be able to get going a little bit. I think she played well. I do think so. 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, as well. I don't think I adapted well enough.
"It's a bit frustrating, but also I think 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 till the end, so I definitely don't want to be going home this early."
On a breezy and blazing day, Konta was reminded of a tough tennis truth: What you don’t know can hurt you.
The 23-year-old Pera played bold tennis whipping her lefty topspin into the corners and sometimes slashing that shot right back at Konta down the middle to deny the Briton angles.
When she wasn't tying Konta up, Pera stretched the 2016 Australian Open semifinalist and sometimes sent her sprawling in pursuit.
Pera lost to Viktorija Golubic in her final match of qualifying then gained main-draw entry as a lucky loser.
Showing no fear against the Miami Open champion, Pera often dictated rallies with her serve and laser lefty forehand that Konta struggled to read.
Pera pumped seven aces and hit 26 winners—12 more than her opponent—including 14 from her forehand.
The Konta two-handed backhand betrayed her at crucial moments with 16 errors coming off that backhand wing.
"I think I just didn't play great," Konta said. "I mean, I think it's a part of tennis. It's a part of everyone's career.
"I mean, there is always going to be days like this, and I think when you have the match fitness and when you have that sort of kind of routine within the matches, even when you aren't having great days like necessarily I did today. I think it's also a little bit harsh. It's not that I had a bad day. There are things that I did well today. So it wasn't like I wasn't out on court. I competed and my opponent beat me. So there is credit due to her."
The Sydney-born Konta fought off four break points in the seventh game of the second set, but missed the mark on a backhand down the line as Pera broke for 4-3.
Netting a swing volley to fall to 30-all in the following game, Pera took a deep breath then swatted successive aces holding for 5-3 after 76 minutes.
Staring down a match points in the ninth game, Konta withstood a sudden gust of wind, a mis-hit that dropped in and the pressure winning a 16-shot rally to save it. Konta fought off two more match points before capping a 16-point game with a stab volley holding for 4-5.
That tight test gave Konta bit of a boost as she broke for the second time to level at 5-all.
Tugging on her black K-Swiss visor, Pera shook it off and challenged Konta to play high balls looking into the sun. Konta badly bungled a smash to face triple break point. On a ripped return right back at her, Konta lost her balance and toppled to the court.
Pera had the break and a knockdown and would again serve for it.
This time she made the most of her opportunity. Testing her opponent with another lob, Pera closed a one hour, 40-minute stunner when Konta framed another smash long.
Covering her mouth with her hands in disbelief, Pera is onto round three against 20th-seeded Czech Barbora Strycova.