British No 1 Johanna Konta fails to make it past second round for the seventh successive year
Wednesday 19 June 2019 18:02, UK
Ashleigh Barty began life as a Grand Slam champion with a first-round victory over Donna Vekic at the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham.
The Australian won the French Open a week-and-a-half ago but is much more at home on grass than clay and came through a tricky opener 6-3 6-4.
Vekic was distraught after losing in the final in the Nottingham Open on Sunday and this was a rough draw for both of them. The Croatian battled back from 2-5 to 4-5 in the second set but Barty served it out at the second time of asking.
Barty, a former junior Wimbledon champion, said it was the "perfect test" against an opponent who is no slouch on grass.
"I knew that I had to be sharp and I had to be ready. Otherwise it wouldn't even be a contest," Barty said on court.
"It was nice and clean today out here. I was just really excited to come back out and kind of dust off the cobwebs a little bit."
Barty insisted that, far from adding pressure, her new status has actually removed it.
"For me nothing changes," she said. "It was an incredible fortnight of tennis that we had without a doubt and some of the best memories of my career will come from those two weeks.
"But I'm still the same person. I'm still the same Ash Barty and I try and prepare the same way. It was really nice to come out now and kind of get back into a normal routine of playing matches again.
"I feel like for me, if anything, it's taken the pressure off. I can just go out and enjoy it, enjoy every single match. It is an opportunity to try and be better and really go out there and just have fun."
She will continue to hone her grass-court skills against American Jennifer Brady who beat Lesia Tsurenko 6-3 6-3.
British No 1 Johanna Konta failed to make it past the second round for the seventh successive year, losing 6-3 6-4 to Jelena Ostapenko.
Konta's brilliant form at the French Open elevated hopes for the grass, and she looked very sharp in her opening match against Anett Kontaveit on Monday.
But she could not find the same form taking on former French Open champion Ostapenko and was beaten in an hour and 19 minutes.
"I'd like to think that come the end of next week or the beginning of Wimbledon, I will be that much more comfortable on the grass in the way I'm playing and also the way I'm moving," Konta said.
"It's maybe my fifth day on the grass, my second match on the grass. So I can definitely take a lot more good things than not from this."
Venus Williams marked her debut in Birmingham with a 6-3 6-4 victory over Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
Williams almost never plays a warm-up event before Wimbledon - a 2011 appearance in Eastbourne was the only time in 20 years - so it was a surprise when she took a wild card into the tournament last week.
But the decision looks to have been a good one, with Williams wrapping up the win in an hour and 26 minutes. She will face China's Wang Qiang in the second round.
Williams played doubles with British player Harriet Dart on Monday and was impressed with the 22-year-old, who was among the recipients of Wednesday's Wimbledon wild cards.
"We had a blast," said Williams. "She is clearly very passionate about the game and is putting the work in. With Serena's permission maybe we will play together again."
