Wimbledon 2013: Johanna Konta joins first-round exodus of British players

Johanna Konta joined the first-round exodus of British players at Wimbledon despite a battling performance against 16th seed Jelena Jankovic.

Follow game-by-game coverage of Andy Murray's first match of Wimbledon 2013 against Benjamin Becker

None of the home players were given particularly favourable draws, with Konta unfortunate to draw not just a highly-ranked player but one in form.

After several years of sliding down the rankings from a high of world number one in 2008, Jankovic has had a fine season, reaching the quarter-finals at the French Open earlier this month.

She won the first set 6-0 there against Maria Sharapova only to go down in three, but it showed how well she is playing.

Clay is much more to her liking than grass, with the Serbian never having made it past the fourth round at Wimbledon, but there was still a big gap between her level and that of Konta.

The 22-year-old Australian-born British number three is at a career-high ranking of 137th but quickly found herself behind today, being broken twice to lose the first set.

The second was much more competitive, and for large parts of it Konta looked on top, but she could not take her chances.

The best of those came in the eighth game when she forced break points on the Jankovic serve, but the Serbian held on and Konta played a poor game to be broken to trail 6-5.

That left Jankovic serving for the match and she clinched it 6-2 7-5 when Konta blazed a forehand long.

Follow game-by-game coverage of Andy Murray's first match of Wimbledon 2013 against Benjamin Becker

PA