Johanna Konta loses Italian Open final but encouraging signs ahead of French Open

For the second time in three weeks, Johanna Konta came away with the runner-up prize. Her Rome campaign hit the buffers against Karolina Pliskova, the former world No. 1 from the Czech Republic. But simply to reach the final of this historic event – which has not been won by a British woman since Virginia Wade lifted the trophy in 1971 – was still a remarkable feat.

Konta had already beaten two grand-slam champions during Thursday’s overstuffed schedule – namely Sloane Stephens and Venus Williams – before taking out world No. 4 Kiki Bertens in Saturday’s semi-final. On Sunday, though, Pliskova hardly gave her a look-in, making just five unforced errors in the entirety of the first set. Handcuffed by the tall Czech’s serve, Konta only held one break point in the match – which slipped from her grasp – and was never realistically in the hunt.

"I just thought she didn't really have a let-down in the whole match," Konta acknowledged after her 6-3, 6-4 defeat. "She played very consistently. I found it quite hard to get a footing in the match, which is credit to her. She plays with big shots, quite flat, and big serves. It can feel sometimes like you are fighting an uphill battle, and that was the case today."

Even so, Konta should still see this week as the perfect preparation for the French Open. Not only has she finally found her feet on the clay, but she will climb a massive 16 places in the rankings, thus reaching No. 26 on the ladder and earning herself a grand-slam seeding for the first time since last summer’s Wimbledon.

Despite regularly insisting that she had posted strong results on the dirt as a junior, Konta has long been perceived as clayphobic. She arrived in Rabat in late April with just seven wins from 20 tour-level matches on this surface – including zero from four at Roland Garros. Nobody would have expected her to reach the final of that WTA International event (prizemoney $250,000), let alone to repeat the feat at the vastly more prestigious Internazionali BNL D’Italia (prizemoney $3.4m).

Konta’s individual cheque came in at just under E262,000 – her second biggest payday outside the majors – but perhaps the best thing about competing to such a high level in Rome is that the conditions here provide the closest match you will ever find to Roland Garros. Which helps to explain why the best players tend to be so fully invested in this tournament, and why it reliably throws up some of the most dramatic matches of the year.

Sunday's men’s final was a case in point. Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic contested the year’s first major final in Australia in January, where Djokovic was as dominant as he has ever been in this long rivalry – the longest, in terms of matches, that the men’s tour has ever thrown up.

This Rome final delivered their 54th match, as well as their first since that day in Melbourne. And this time Djokovic – who had spent an exhausting 7hr 40min on court in his previous four matches, compared to Nadal’s more clinical 5hr 29min – found it difficult time to get his legs moving.

The match began with Nadal claiming the first bagel set in the history of this 13-year head-to-head. To Djokovic’s credit he refused to go away, and somehow managed to level the score at one set apiece. But he was throwing in far more unforced errors than usual. His backhand lacked its usual bankability and he kept on missing drop-shots and overheads. As the match moved into its final act, he was unable to compete with the implacable weight and depth of Nadal’s groundstrokes, and was eventually defeated by an unusual-looking 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 scoreline.

This was a big result for Nadal, who had not previously won a title this season. Asked afterwards for his verdict on contenders for the French Open, Djokovic replied "Nadal is the No. 1 favourite and then you have everyone else.”