French Open: Konta knocked out in opening round, Halep advances

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Paris, Sep 28 (IANS) American teenager Coco Gauff caused the biggest upset on the opening-day play at the Roland Garros, defeating ninth seed Johanna Konta of Great Britain in straight sets.

Playing her first-ever Roland Garros main-draw match, Gauff on Sunday defeated the 2019 semifinalist 6-3, 6-3 in a match that lasted an hour and 41 minutes. Gauff, ranked 51, converted five of 12 break points, while Konta could only get two of seven over the line. The Brit outwinnered Gauff by 22 to 14, but Konta was wholly undone by 41 unforced errors on the day.

"I don't really take anything for granted, because I'm just happy to be playing," Gauff was quoted as saying in her post-match press conference by the WTA website. "I don't think maybe winning matches at slams is something I'm used to, especially this is my first main draw at Roland Garros. When I'm on the court, I can act like I'm used to it. When I'm off the court, I'm just happy to be here."

She will now face Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan in the second round.

Meanwhile, No.1 seed and 2018 champion Simona Halep notched her 15th consecutive match-win with a straight-set victory over Sara Sorribes Tormo to advance to the next round at the clay court grand slam. Halep celebrated her 29th birthday in style with a 6-4, 6-0 over Tormo in one hour and 22 minutes.

"The perfect present was that I won today, of course," Halep said after the match. "It was a really special day playing on Roland Garros on my birthday. So it's going to be pretty unique, maybe forever."

Halep will face another tough test in the second round against fellow Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu.

A maximum of 1,000 attendees have been allowed at this year's French Open in response to the resurgence of the Covid-19 cases in and around Paris.

--IANS

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