Australian Open 2021 news: Johanna Konta out, retires from first-round match due to injury

Updated 09/02/2021 at 15:33 GMT

British number one Johanna Konta picked up an injury during her first-round match against Slovenia's Kaja Juvan, and was unable to continue after the first two games of the second set. She retired with what seemed to be an abdominal problem. "I felt it in kind of my second service game of the first set," she said.

Johanna Konta of Great Britain reacts as she leaves the court after retiring

Image credit: Getty Images

Johanna Konta is out of the Australian Open after being forced to retire from her first-round match against Kaja Juvan with injury.

The British number one was serving for the first set when she had to leave court to seek medical attention.

Although she managed to get the points required to take the first set, she needed more treatment immediately afterwards for what seemed to be an abdominal problem.

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And after falling behind 2-0 in the second set the 29-year-old was unable to continue.

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Konta confirmed in her post-match press conference it was an abdominal issue, saying she had only experienced that kind of problem once before, at the end of 2016.

"I felt it in kind of my second service game of the first set, so then I was just conscious of trying to adapt while using my legs more on my serve," she told the media.

"And then my second-last service game of the first set, that's when it started to get quite painful, and I then again tried to just manage it the best I could, but then in my last service game of the first set, that's when I needed to intervene with the physios to try and offload it in any way with tape and things like that.

"I don't have answers for you of why this happened. I don't know, to be honest. I haven't had an ab issue in a very, very long time, so, yeah, I don't know."