21 January 2020

As Johanna Konta, Kyle Edmund and Katie Boulter fall at the first hurdle, who is left for Britain to get behind at the Australian Open?

The Brits have had a dismal start to the Australian Open, with multiple first round exits hitting the nation hard.

Given the pace at which the Grand Slam moves, here's a quick summary of who has been dumped out and who remains for British fans to cheer on in Melbourne.

Who has been knocked out?

The biggest casualty of the first round is British No 1 Johanna Konta, who was upset by Tunisian Ons Jabeur.

The world N 12 pulled out of the Adelaide International in the lead up to the Australian Open and it was evident she was not firing on all cylinders.

She was broken four times on her way to a 6-4 6-2 defeat, the first time she has exited at the first round stage since qualifying for the main draw in 2016.

Katie Boulter also went out at the first time of asking, losing to fifth seed Elina Svitolina 6-4 7-5.

The world No 315 put up a valiant fight against her Ukrainian opponent, with Svitolina being made to wait for much of the opening exchanges until she eventually found the solitary break that allowed her to take the first set.

But that did not deter Boulter, who continued to push the world No. 6 all the way.

But, in a back and forth second set, Svitolina's class began to show in the final stages as she booked her place in the next round.

Britain's men's hopes were also dashed on Tuesday as Kyle Edmund lost 7-6 (7) 6-3 7-6 (4) to No. 24 seed Serbian Dusan Lajovic.

Edmund resumed following a rain delay 5-2 ahead in the first set, but crumbled to gift Lajovic the lead and failed to recover from there, falling to a poor straight sets defeat.

Another British man dumped out in Melbourne was Cameron Norrie as Pierre-Hugues Herbert fought back from serving to stay in the match in the fourth set to win over the distance 7-5 3-6 3-6 7-5 6-4

Who is left?

The major British success story at the Slam so far is Harriet Dart, who came through an absolute thriller to beat Japan's Misaki Doi 2-6 6-4 7-6 (8).

In a gruelling classic, Dart missed the chance to secure the victory prior to the final set tie break as Doi fought back from two match points down.

The Brit then had to battle back herself as she saved two match points in the tie break to come back and win a quite remarkable encounter.

Heather Watson is the only British woman who is yet to play her first round tie, so she remains in the hat.

She faces Kristyna Pliskova on day three of the tournament as she looks to avoid a third successive first round exit.

And Dan Evans also booked his place in the second round in thrilling fashion as he battled back from two sets down against American Mackenzie McDonald to win 3-6 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-3 in three hours and 23 minutes.

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