Former Wimbledon champions John McEnroe and Marion Bartoli both claimed Johanna Konta has “lost it” after the British No 1 was knocked out of her home grand slam.
Rather than threaten to match or improve on last year’s run to the semi-finals in London, Konta was bounced out in the second round by hard-hitting Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova.
A 6-3 6-4 defeat was an outcome that Konta could have few complaints about, and her ranking is set to plummet almost out of the world’s top 50.
Twelve months ago she soared to number four after reaching the last four at Wimbledon.
McEnroe, presenting the 6-Love-6 phone-in show on BBC Radio 5 Live, said: “I don’t know what’s going on with her. She’s lost it completely it seems.”
Frenchwoman Bartoli, who was a surprise winner of the women’s singles in 2013, shared McEnroe’s view.
“She’s lost it for quite a while to be honest,” Bartoli said. “She’s lost it since last year’s semi-final when she lost to Venus Williams.
“I think after that the pressure that was starting to beat on her has been proving slightly too much.
“Today her opponent was playing better than her, was playing faster than her, and that disturbed Jo.”
Former Great Britain Fed Cup captain Judy Murray said Konta needed to add more variety to her game.
Murray said: “You need to have lots of things in your locker so you have got a Plan B or even Plan C if you need it.
“There are many players both on the men’s side and women’s side where they’re hothouse – it’s repetition, its bang, bang, bang from the back of the court and they don’t have the variety to have a Plan B or a Plan C.
“I think that’s what Jo and her team are going to have to do: look at how they can persuade her to add things into her game on the match court that will allow her to get back up to the top again.”
