"I think for 90 per cent of the match I was shoulder to shoulder with her, which was a very positive thing for me"
Saturday 23 June 2018 16:14, UK
Johanna Konta believes she is 90 per cent of the way to rediscovering her best form after a first-round defeat by Petra Kvitova at the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham.
Konta paid the price for her drop in ranking by drawing the defending champion and lost a close contest 6-3 6-4 to bring an end to British interest in the singles after Heather Watson was beaten by Ukraine's Lesia Tsurenko.
"I think for 90 per cent of the match I was shoulder to shoulder with her, which was a very positive thing for me," said Konta. "That 10 per cent is what I'm working on right now to be able to do just that bit better and to come through in some of those close moments."
Konta reached the final in Nottingham at the weekend and looked to use her extra match sharpness on grass against the fourth seed and two-time Wimbledon champion.
Konta has now lost her last six matches against top-10 players dating back to her quarter-final victory over Simona Halep at Wimbledon.
She said: "I won't be kicking myself. I did a lot of good things, which is more what I want to be taking from the match. Ideally I don't want to be double-faulting twice in a row, however, she also puts a lot of pressure on you when she's returning and she has a very big presence, so I think that's also credit to her and how she was returning."
Konta will head home to London before travelling to her family home in Eastbourne ahead of next week's Nature Valley International.
The 27-year-old could see her ranking plummet if she does not do well over the next month after reaching semi-finals at both Eastbourne and Wimbledon last year but she insisted she would not be praying for kinder draws.
She said: "I don't ask for easier draws, I'm a firm believer that you play certain people at certain times for a reason and I'm very happy that I had this match today. I would have liked to have won it and have another one here but I'm very happy I got to play someone like her in the lead-up to Wimbledon."
It was a similar story for Watson against a player who had never previously won a match on four visits to Edgbaston Priory.
Watson won their last meeting on grass at Eastbourne 12 months ago but it was Tsurenko, ranked 37 to her opponent's 86, who had the better of the big moments.
Watson has won only three tour-level matches since January, and she said: "I felt like I was playing really well today, but every time it was 30-30 or a deuce point, I'd just make the same mistake. It was just so frustrating for me. Every time I needed to step up, I didn't."
Like Konta, Watson is heading into a part of the season where she has a lot of points to defend and she faces tumbling out of the top 100 if she cannot engineer a substantial improvement in results.
"I don't want to be too negative about it because I was really pleased with my fighting spirit, especially with the way I served," said Watson. "As long as I keep my head screwed on like it is, then the results will take care of themselves."
We have more tennis coverage from the ATP Tour as Roger Federer defends his Gerry Weber Open title in Halle, live on Sky Sports Arena all this week.
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