Wimbledon 2016: Britain's Johanna Konta eases into second round
Wednesday 29 June 2016 20:58, UK
Britain's Johanna Konta won a singles match at Wimbledon for the first time as she overcame rain and Puerto Rico's Monica Puig.
Picking up from her rain-delayed contest from Tuesday, the British No 1 recovered from an early wobble to triumph 6-1 7-5 in 74 minutes.
In cold and blowy conditions on Court One, the Puerto Rican world No 36 needed a quick turnaround to get back into the match on Wednesday and broke to take a 4-2 lead in the second set.
But Konta stood firm to wrap up the victory swiftly to set up a second round clash with Canada's Eugene Bouchard who saw off Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3 6-4.
On dealing with the interruptions, the 25-year-old said: "I think it was mainly about also seeing the funny side of things, just keeping it light-hearted, not really staying too intense for such a long period of time.
"That can be very exhausting. Last night I went back. I don't even remember what I did. I watched a bit of TV, made some dinner, joked around. I think there was some tennis on still. Oh, and then we watched Taken 2."
Fellow Brits Heather Watson and Dan Evans were unable to complete their matches, both halted by another bout of rain.
Watson won the first set 6-3 against Germany's Annika Beck but conceded the second 6-0 and was 1-0 down in the decider. Evans went off at 6-6 in the first set against Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov.
The third seed Agnieszka Radwanska made light work of Kateryna Kozlova as she cruised to a 6-2 6-1 win over the Ukrainian on Centre Court.
The 2012 Wimbledon runner-up, who has never lost a first-round match in 11 appearances at the All England Club, had few problems in a match that lasted 63 minutes.
Petra Kvitova, champion in 2011 and 2014, blasted her way to a 6-0 6-4 victory over Romania's Sorana Cirstea in just 53 minutes.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova needed three sets to overcome Taiwanese opponent Hsieh Su-Wei. The 21 seed takes her place in the second round after her 7-5 1-6 6-1 win.
Andrea Petkovic also needed three sets to come through her first round match against Japan's Nao Hibino, plus there were wins for Evgeniya Rodina, former world junior No 1 Ana Konjuh and American Julia Boserup.
