French Open: Johanna Konta and Dan Evans join Andy Murray in suffering early exits on brutal day for Britons
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British fortunes matched the miserable Parisian weather as Johanna Konta and Dan Evans joined Andy Murray in making early exits from the French Open.
All three of Britain's biggest hopes were given tough draws – Murray in a rematch with his old foe Stan Wawrinka, Konta against precocious 16-year-old Coco Gauff and Evans in a meeting with former world No4 Kei Nishikori.
Only Evans can look back on the day with any positive feelings, having produced his best performance at Roland Garros in a 1-6 6-1 7-6 (3) 1-6 6-4 loss to Nishikori, who is working his way up the rankings after elbow surgery.
Considering he has never won a match on the Parisian clay, it was a low bar, but Evans showed admirable grit and skill to stay in contention and he was unfortunate to lose out in the end.
For Konta and, in particular Murray, this was a chastening day, with the former world No1’s 6-1 6-3 6-2 loss to Wawrinka his joint worst at a Grand Slam during his entire career.
The Scot served poorly and was made to pay brutally by 2015 champion Wawrinka, who made extremely light of the cold conditions.
Konta's disappointing year in the Slams concluded with an error-strewn 6-3 6-3 defeat by Gauff, who produced a much more mature performance than her opponent.
Konta, who made 41 unforced errors, said: "It's unfortunate that it happened here, but I just didn't play too well.
"I think nothing was working consistently enough.
"I think I was trying to do good things, and I had semi-opportunities to try and get something going, but I just didn't find a good enough level to be able to get where I wanted today."
The baton will pass to Cameron Norrie and qualifier Liam Broady on Monday, with Heather Watson the final British player in action on Tuesday.
PA
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