Johanna Konta out of French Open after suffering first round defeat to world No 109 Hsieh Su-wei

​Earlier this month, Simona Halep was asked at the Italian Open who she considered to be the favourite to win at Roland-Garros this season, with recent champions Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova both conspicuous by their absence in Paris this year. “About 15 players,” she replied.

After the loss of World No 1 Angelique Kerber to the dangerous floater Ekaterina Makarova, that list was quickly reduced to 14. And now it has shortened yet further still, following Johanna Konta’s shock 1-6 7-6 6-4 defeat to the unseeded Su-Wei Hsieh: a player ranked more than 100 places behind Konta in the WTA rankings.

Hsieh, a 31-year-old from Taiwan who had never before beaten a player in the top ten, did have one advantage over Konta, however. She had previously won a match at the French Open, having beat the Spaniard Lara Arruabarrena prior to losing in straight-sets to Petra Kvitová last season.

Konta, in contrast, has now lost in the first round for the third successive year. It says much about how completely open the women’s singles are this year that she was even considered as a legitimate contender in the first-place.

Although, on the evidence of her performance in the first set, Konta looked as though she was well placed to finally overcome her aversion to clay and take advantage of the relatively kind draw she was handed at this year’s tournament. The eighth seed started aggressively, hitting deep into the court and taking the ball early at every opportunity.

Playing in front of a disappointingly small crowd, Konta broke Hsieh in her first service game and again in her third, finishing points at a remarkable speed to take the first set 6-1 in little over 20-minutes. Those fans who had decided on an early lunch before making their way to Court Philippe Chatrier found they had missed an entire set by the time they arrived, with the British number one in complete control.

However, it was this determination to strike the ball early off both forehand and backhand that let Hsieh back into the match, with Konta beginning to make a number of unforced errors in the second set. Hsieh managed to crank up the pressure on her opponent by dramatically improving her second serve, forcing Konta to save a set point at 6-5, which forced a tie-break.

Things began well for Konta who took the opening two points, but with the momentum swinging in her favour Hsieh had the mental edge over her opponent, and the World No 108 won seven straight points to level the match at 1-1.

After a quick comfort break Konta looked bereft of ideas upon returning to the court. Hsieh’s beguiling mixture of slice and perfectly positioned dropped shots saw her break Konta twice to move into a dominant 5-3 lead. Konta continued to blast everything that came her way but made 20 unforced errors as she slipped to an unexpected three-set defeat.

Konta however refused to blame the surface for her loss, and instead attempted to remain positive about the improvements she has made playing on her least favourite surface over the past three months.

“I know that results-wise it does not reflect in necessarily, but I feel as though I have actually made a lot of improvements on the surface with every match that I have played,” she said in her post-match press conference.

“It is unfortunate that I did not get the chance to play another match here, because I definitely was enjoying my time on the surface and I wanted the season to continue on clay.”

Konta will now turn her attentions towards the grass-court season, where she will hope to progress beyond the second round of Wimbledon for the first time.

“In terms of heading onto the grass I am obviously looking forward to it, more so because I’ll be at home,” she added. “All I can promise whenever I go out on court is that I will always do my best. Whether that comes away with a win or a loss, I don't know. That depends a lot on the day, a lot on the level that I can produce, and also what my opponent can produce on the day. And that's really all I can do with that.”