Konta focusing on positives despite Wuhan Open defeat

After matching last year's run to the last eight in China, Konta lost 6-3 6-4 to Czech 14th seed, and two-time Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova.

It means the 25-year-old missed out on the chance to boost her position in the race for the WTA Finals in Singapore, with victory meaning she would have been only one win away from occupying a qualifying spot for the end-of-season showdown.

She currently sits in tenth place, with only the top eight progressing to the finals, 273 points behind the last qualifying spot.

But the upcoming China Open presents Konta with another opportunity to earn her place in the finals and become the first British woman to conquer the top ten of the main rankings since 1984, but she refuses to look too far ahead.

"In terms of rankings, rankings come and go," she said. "I don't play tennis for my ranking. I play it because I love the sport and I want to be the best that I can be at it.

"I'm just competing in the events that I'm in at the moment. This week I was just here in Wuhan. I'm not thinking about what will come.

"A lot of those things are actually not all under my control. It also depends on how other players do. There's not much point for me to really look at it. So now I'm going to be in Beijing and I'm going to try to do the best that I can.

"There is a fair lot of tennis to still be played. I'm first of all happy that I stayed healthy this week.

"Again, I played a number of good matches. So I have some good tennis under my belt going into Beijing."

Sportsbeat 2016