Venus Williams Upset In Australian Open First Round

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Venus Williams Upset In Australian Open First Round
By Ken Miller, Lawn Tennis Analyst, Posted: Monday, February 8, 2016 9:39pm PST USA

Melbourne-- Last month at the Australian Open in Melbourne, week one was rocked by dramatic upsets such as the 8th seeded Venus Williams’ loss on day two 6-4, 6-2 to the unseeded Johanna Konta of Great Britain.

The American Williams had won two fall WTA Tour tournaments to end 2015 ranked at number seven; however the 47th ranked Konta was well known as a dangerous player and had taken Williams to three sets in the duo's’ only prior meeting in the fall.

Williams held serve to open the match.

Venus Williams of the USA

With Williams continuing to struggle with her serve, movement and consistency, Konta raced to a 5-0 set two lead.

The American, with her leg and arm wrapped, then struggled with her movement and serve as well as the aggressive play from Konta as she dropped the next three games to trail 1-3.

Williams held serve at love to reach 2-3 before striking more baseline errors to fall behind 2-5.

The American then won the following two games to reach 4-5.

With Konta serving for the set, Williams struck a crosscourt backhand long before hitting a down the line backhand wide to trail 40-0.

Konta struck an ace down the tee to close out the set.

And with Williams continuing to struggle with her serve, movement and consistency, Konta raced to a 5-0 set two lead.

However; facing a shut out set, Williams connected with several forehand winners to take two games in a row after winning 8 straight points.

With Konta serving for the match, Williams struck two baseline winners to reach 30-40.

However the Brit then hit a crosscourt forehand winner to pull to deuce.

Konta then struck a crosscourt backhand long to give Williams a second breakpoint.

However the American would commit several addition baseline errors; ending the match 6-4, 6-2 with a netted crosscourt backhand return after one hour and 19 minutes of play.