JOHANNA Konta‘s winless streak on the WTA Tour stretched into its fifth month, having not won since the fourth round of the US Open last year. Having publicly announced her soreness this year, Konta was bundled out in the first round of Brisbane (Barbora Strycova) and Melbourne Park (Ons Jabeur), then bypassed Fed Cup in order to be fresh for this Premier event.

Unfortunately for the top 15 Brit, Konta was no match for 159th ranked Oceane Dodin. The 23-year-old Frenchwoman claimed a 6-3 6-4 victory in an hour and 27 minutes to shock the fourth seed who was considered one of the title contenders. Konta was unable to contain Dodin’s serve which while erratic at times, was almost unstoppable when in. The Frenchwoman won a whopping 88.6 per cent of her first serve points – dropping four points for the match – though only ran at a 52.2 per cent efficiency with her first serve, and had the same amount of double faults as aces – seven. Nonetheless, Konta could not get her game going, unable to break her opponent and broken twice from four attempts, the Brit has been unable to get a clean run at it this year. The only saving grace for Konta was the fact that the two closest players to her 15th ranking spot playing this week was Petra Martic and Marketa Vondrousova, both of whom were bundled out at Hua Hin and St Petersburg respectively.

Speaking of rankings, regardless of her tournament performance, Belinda Bencic has already moved into number four in the world, overtaking the injured Bianca Andreescu. The Swiss 22-year-old won 7-6 6-4 over home nation hero, Svetlana Kuznetsova with both players at opposite ends of their careers. In other Round of 16 results, eighth seed Elena Rybakina continued her great form this season with a 6-3 6-4 victory over France’s Fiona Ferro, while Russian teenager Anastasia Potapova has already bolted into the top 100 up to 81 with a 7-6 6-3 win over Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic.

In the sole Round of 32 match, French veteran Alize Cornet downed Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko who was coming off a huge win over Australian Open winner, Sofia Kenin in the Fed Cup. Cornet’s fitness will be tested as she is first up on Sibur Arena tomorrow, taking on sixth seed Greek, Maria Sakkari. The match of the day is likely to be in-form Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova going up against seventh seed Croatian, Donna Vekic.

Round of 16 Results:

[1] B. Bencic (SUI) defaeted S. Kuznetsova (RUS) 7-6 6-4
O. Dodin (FRA) defeated [4] J. Konta (GBR) 6-3 6-4
[8] E. Rybakina (KAZ) defeated F. Ferro (FRA) 6-3 6-4
A. Potapova (RUS) defeated A. Tomljanovic (AUS) 7-6 6-3

Round of 32 Results:

A. Cornet (FRA) defeated J. Ostapenko (LAT)