Dubai: Great Britain’s Johanna Konta was left to rue a spate of wasted opportunities in her second-round loss to Daria Kasatkina late on Wednesday. That encounter between the British wild card and 20-year-old Russian entered the record books of the Dubai Tennis Championships as being the fifth longest.
Konta took the first set 6-4 in a minute short of the hour, and then seemed to be cruising along at 3-1 in the second when Kasatkina suddenly came alive to draw level and push for the tiebreaker that the 20-year-old went on to win 8-6.
In the deciding third set, both exchanged breaks early and then Kasatkina registered two more breaks to roll off with the set and match in 44 minutes and notch up the fifth longest match since competition records were maintained from 2008.
“I think I still fought the best that I could in that third set. I mean, I don’t feel amazing. At one point I was laughing, I did think we were playing two separate matches because she looked fresh as a daisy. That was not a great feeling, but I think I did the best that I could, quite honestly,” Konta admitted.
The 26-year-old who chose Great Britain over her native Australia, has been struggling in 2018. After a first-round loss to Agnieszka Radwanska at the season-opening Brisbane International, she fell in the second round to Bernarda Pera at the Australian Open and then in Round 16 in three sets to Angelique Kerber in Doha last week. So she will gladly accept all the positives that came with her marathon on-court presence on Wednesday.
“I felt I did try to play the right way. I actually think I’m playing better and better as the matches go on, as the season is going on. I am definitely going to take a lot of good things from that. I feel I’m serving better and better. I think Daria is also quite a tricky player with her style of play, the amount of rotation she also on the ball,” she remarked.
“I think I did a reasonable job at trying to still play my game with that and try to move forward. I think sometimes I overplayed a little bit, which obviously is what you’re always looking to try to find the balance with. However, yeah, unfortunately I ran out of a bit of steam at the end, and she just had more left in the tank,” Konta rued.
Top 6 in Dubai
2010: Regina Kulikova bt Svetlana Kuznetsova 5-7, 7-6, 6-2 in 3 hrs, 17 mins
2015: Alize Cornet bt Kirsten Flipkens 6-0, 6-7, 6-3 in 3 hrs, 11 mins
2008: Aiko Nakamura bt Andreja Klepac 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 in 3 hrs, 10 mins
2008: Justine Henin bt Katarina Srebotnik 7-5, 6-7, 6-3 in 3 hrs, 1 min
2018: Daria Kasatkina bt Johanna Konta 4-6, 7-6, 6-2 in 2 hrs, 59 mins
2017: Laura Siegemund bt Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 in 2 hrs, 58 mins
Top 3 Internationally
1984: Vicki Nelson bt Jean Hepner 6-4, 7-6 in 6 hrs, 31 mins
2011 Australian Open: Francesca Schiavone bt Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 in 4 hrs, 44 mins
2010 French Open Qualifying: Kurumi Nara bt Monica Niculescu 4-6, 7-6, 10-8 in 4 hrs, 42 mins
