Johanna Konta will head Britain’s action on day one of the 2019 US Open and she will have Cameron Norrie, Dan Evans and Harriet Dart for company this afternoon.
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The 16th seeded Konta, who was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon earlier this year, following on from a semi-final showing at Roland-Garros, will take on a stiff opposition in the form Daria Kasatkina in her opener. This will be the first match on Court 17 on Monday, with play starting at 11 am local time (or 4 pm BST).
Konta has had a good run this season, despite not having won a single title. Those two Grand Slam performances bear ample testimony to it, especially given her clay court play has never been her strength. The Briton was also a finalist at the Rome Open and the WTA Rabat, having earlier won all her four matches at the Fed Cup too.
On the other hand, Dart is a 23-year-old qualifier, who won three matches in a row to make the main. Earlier this year, she was given a wild-card to Wimbledon and surprised everyone by reaching the third round before she was sent packing by Ash Barty.
Interestingly, Dart had qualified for the main draw of the Australian Open as well but was well beaten 6-0, 6-0 by Maria Sharapova in their opener.
Dart will be up against Ana Bogdan in her first round match at the 2019 US Open, also the first match today on Court 14. It will run in parallel with the Konta encounter.
The two British men in action in the singles draw are Evans and Norrie, both to take to court 10 today. Evans takes on Adrian Mannarino while Norrie will be up against Gregoire Barrere in their respective opening round matches.
Evans will be the second on that court, following the Caroline Garcia-Ons Jabeur encounter, and that will be followed by the Norrie match.
Evans, ranked 58th in the world, has had a good time on the Challenger circuit, and even reached the third round at Wimbledon but his hard court form hasn’t been extraordinary. After making the main draw at Montreal, he has been on a three-match losing streak, having earlier lost in the Washington Open opener as well.
24-year-old Norrie was a semi-finalist at Atlanta, and made second round at both Los Cabos and the Montreal Masters but did not make the main draw at Cincinnati. He fell in straight sets to Denis Kudla in that one.
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