Johanna Konta crushes Anastasija Sevastova in Beijing
Monday 3 October 2016 13:48, UK
Johanna Konta dished out a helping of revenge on Anastasija Sevastova as she blitzed her way into the second round of the China Open in Beijing.
The British No 1 hammered the Latvian 6-1 6-1 in under an hour to get payback for her US Open fourth-round defeat last month.
It also gives her hopes of reaching the WTA Finals in Singapore later this month a boost as she has gained more points on Carla Suarez Navarro in the Road to Singapore.
Konta beat the Spaniard on her way to the Wuhan Open quarter-final earlier this week to close the gap and that has been shortened further after Suarez Navarro suffered a surprise first-round defeat in Beijing.
She is ninth in the race, with the top eight qualifying for the end-of-season showpiece later this month. Konta is 11th and will hope to make points up on both Madison Keys and Svetlana Kuznetsova this week.
Timea Babos is her second-round opponent.
In the men's competition, Kyle Edmund booked his place in the main draw with a straight-sets qualifying win over Evgeny Donskoy.
The British No 2, who joins Andy Murray in the first round, beat the Russian 7-6 (7-2) 6-4.
