Johanna Konta’s fifth visit to the Australian Open provides her with the best chance yet of a breakthrough win at a grand slam, and there was little to suggest in her efficient win over the American Madison Brengle on day two that she is going to waste the opportunity.



A slew of good Americans fell on day one – including the US Open champion, Sloane Stephens, seven-slam titlist Venus Williams and CoCo Vandeweghe, who was one of four compatriots to make the semi-finals of their own season-ending major at Flushing Meadows last September.

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On a warmer Tuesday, Brengle, ranked 90th in the world, joined them. Konta mixed impressive groundstrokes with an excellent service game and some marginal work at the net, to win 6-3, 6-1 in 66 minutes in the HiSense Arena.

Konta said courtside, after signing a few autographs, that she was happy with the way the match went. “I knew she was going to be tough, because she gets a lot of balls back,” she said. “I’ve had some of my best results of my career here, and I love coming back.”

Could she go on to take advantage of a weakened field? “It’s a possibility. Some of the first-round matches are of such high quality; it shows how much depth there is in the women’s game right now.”

On the prospect of playing in century-plus heat on Thursday against another American, the lucky loser Bernarda Pera – who earlier beat the Russian qualifier, Anna Blinkova, 6-2, 6-2 in just over an hour on Court 15 – she said: “I love the Australian heat.”

The temperature is rising, but, whatever the respect Konta has for her peers, the competition has cooled a little.

Konta got her first break in the third game with a well-crafted tap down the line behind Brengle’s defences. Her serve was working well but she was not enjoying a good time at the net, butchering a couple of smashes that would have taken her even further clear of her opponent.

Never the less, after she had worked her way back to dominance, her overhead finisher took her to a 5-2 lead and she served for the set. In sight of the first prize, however, Konta over-cooked a backhand, her 18th unforced error of a relatively quick set, and gave the break back with an injudicious forehand, wide past the deuce corner.

But Brengle, having been thrown a lifeline, failed to clamber back on board. Seven Konta aces and three Brengle double faults skewed the contest a little, but the world No10 was comfortable enough going into the second set.

The rhythm that had slowly surfaced in the first half-hour or so built steadily as Brengle failed to curtail Konta’s power.

A fascinating statistic landed among many others before the tournament, claiming that Konta’s second serve was 10% faster, on average, than that of anyone in the top 10 at this tournament.

It certainly fired well enough on Tuesday, as she enjoyed 70% success with it; and her first serve hit 177kph – 37kph quicker than Brengle’s, and she was averaging 164kph to 134kph.

That speed (and placement) gave her a definite edge with ball in hand, and the American, pushed deep when returning, found it difficult to play her naturally aggressive game off the ground. And, after the overhead jitters of the first set, Konta began to smash with more certainty.

A kind net clip gave her break point in the fourth game, and she made sure of it when blasting a forehand wide of a now fading Brengle. From there to the end, the match was decidedly one-sided; Konta, who had not dropped a point on serve in the set, kept a clean sheet until she tapped a backhand volley long on the third point of the fifth game, but it was the briefest of dips.

She took Brengle to deuce on her serve in the sixth game, and broke when she drilled a brilliant backhand return past her weak second serve. Britain’s best player found Brengle a reluctant foil, however, and had to fight through three deuce points and save break point before closing out the match at the fourth attempt when her opponent’s resistance died on the back of a weary backhand that drifted wide.

When Heather Watson fell in the first round to Kazak Yulia Putintseva, she left Konta as the sole British player in the women’s draw, a scenario as bleak as it is familiar.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Heather Watson squints in the Melbourne Sun on her way to defeat against Yulia Putintseva. Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

Watson tried her hardest, saving two set points in the first set, but a couple of loose groundstrokes let her down. She had been in good form recently, and made her combative opponent fight all the way. Watson saved match point and forced her opponent through deuce five times before converting a fifth break chance to force a tie-break in the second.

She served on set point, but pushed a forehand long and Putintseva held her nerve under pressure to serve it out for a 7-5, 7-6 (6) after two-and-a-quarter hours of high-grade tennis.

There was no escaping the sense of ennui, especially in the absence of Andy Murray, who remains in Melbourne recuperating from knee surgery, but who is obviously helpless to lend the British charge much of a lift – although he has had dinner with the only Briton left in the men’s draw, Kyle Edmund.