The British No 1 has lost all three singles matches she has contested this year
Thursday 13 February 2020 12:54, UK
Johanna Konta's winless 2020 in singles matches continued as she lost in straight sets to world No 159 Oceane Dodin in the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy.
The British No 1, ranked 14, has lost all three matches she has contested this year having gone out in the opening round of the Brisbane International and the Australian Open.
She chose to miss Great Britain's Fed Cup play-off against Slovakia, instead taking a wild card into the WTA tournament in Russia, where she received a first-round bye as the fourth seed.
But Konta's lack of matches again showed as she was beaten 6-3 6-4 by big-hitting qualifier Dodin.
A run of five successive games lost at the end of the first set and start of the second proved decisive against Dodin, with Konta unable to take two chances to break back in the final game.
Top seed and 2016 finalist Belinda Bencic defeated hometown player Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 and she will next face the winner of Thursday's second-round clash between sixth seed Maria Sakkari of Greece and French qualifier Alize Cornet.
Elsewhere in the draw, Elena Rybakina defeated Katerina Siniakova 6-3 6-4 in one hour and 19 minutes and she will be Dodin's next opponent.
At the Thailand Open, Elina Svitolina eased into the second round by beating Bibiane Schoos 6-2 6-4.
The top seed from Ukraine was making her first appearance in Hua Hin and needed just 79 minutes to beat the Dutch No 4. The 2018 WTA Finals champion will next face Australian qualifier Storm Sanders.
Fifth seed Magda Linette is through after celebrating her 28th birthday with a 6-2 6-2 win against Kateryna Bondarenko.
Wang Qiang delivered a solid serving display to battle past Katarzyna Kawa. The third seed progressed with a 6-3 6-4 victory in one hour and 30 minutes.
Wang will face 19-year-old qualifier Leonie Kung in the quarter-finals after the 2018 Wimbledon girls' finalist stunned seventh seed Zhu Lin 6-3 6-1.
Meanwhile, the Australian Open runner-up Garbine Muguruza has joined next week's field for the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
The four-time Grand Slam champion Kim Clijsters will make her return to competitive tennis there.
It's not all positive news ahead of the tournament though, two key players have been forced to withdraw due to injury; Bianca Andreescu and Ashleigh Barty.
Check our news, reports and reaction from all major tennis events by following us on skysports.com/tennis, our app for mobile devices or our Twitter account @skysportstennis.
