Johanna Konta completed a miserable day for Britain’s leading names by losing to 16-year-old Coco Gauff in the opening round of the French Open.
After Dan Evans’ battling five-set defeat by Kei Nishikori and Andy Murray’s far less competitive battering by Stan Wawrinka, ninth seed Konta put in an error-strewn display in going down 6-3 6-3 to the American teenager.
Gauff has already shown herself to be extremely mentally tough and tactically astute and it was she who played like the veteran in finding her best at the important moments and drawing errors from the Konta racket.
There were 41 in total from the British number one, who showed once again that, if her A game is not working, she simply cannot find another path.
Cold, blustery conditions admittedly did not help and Konta, a semi-finalist at Roland Garros last year, was wayward from the start as Gauff strode into a 3-0 lead.
Konta still had her chances, largely thanks to a plethora of double faults from Gauff. It is a clear weakness in the teenager’s game but, on the points that really mattered, she found the service box.
The Briton was unable to take any of her five break points, with a frustrated Gauff saying “finally” after winning a long game to clinch the opening set.
Konta made a strong start to the second set with a break for 2-0 but let her advantage slip away straight away and Gauff made her pay with a run of five games in a row.
More double faults surfaced as she tried to serve it out. But, although Konta retrieved one of the breaks, she could not hold her own serve, a tame backhand into the net sealing her fate.
