Johanna Konta suffers first-round defeat in Madrid

Johanna Konta’s struggles on clay continued as a final-set slump saw her lose to Laura Siegemund in the first round of the Madrid Open.

A break for the No.6 seed in the opening game was nearly enough to see her through to a one-set lead, as she added an insurance break in the seventh game to lead 5-2.

Sixth-seed Konta, 25, was 3-0 up in the decider but German Siegemund took five straight games to progress 3-6 7-5 6-4.

The match ended at 02:17am local time and defeat means British world number seven Konta has still won just three games on the surface in her career.

Siegemund will face Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit or American Coco Vandeweghe.

The world number 30 won the second WTA Tour title of her career last week at the Stuttgart Open.

She started poorly in the Spanish capital as Konta broke serve twice to take the opening set but then fought back to claim a tie-break in the second having been 5-4 down.

And she showed the same battling qualities in the decider, fighting back from three break points that would have given Konta a 4-0 lead to win the game and subsequently the match.