By Mike Dickson for the Daily Mail
Published: 21:21 BST, 5 May 2019 | Updated: 21:21 BST, 5 May 2019
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Jo Konta played two matches on two different continents at the weekend, and won the second of them on Sunday night after hotfooting it from Morocco to Madrid.
Having dashed to make a Ryanair flight following her loss in the final of the WTA event in Rabat on Saturday, the British No 1 ignored any fatigue to defeat world No 49 Alison Riske 6-4 6-1.
It is part of a heartening upturn for Konta, who has already won the same number of matches on clay this season as in the whole of the last two before this.
Johanna Konta celebrates after beating Alison Riske in the first round of the Madrid Open
She now meets French Open champion Simona Halep, one of the toughest opponents on surface, but she will at least do so after a day's rest.
Reflecting on the unglamorous underbelly of being a travelling pro, she said: 'Saturday was a long day for me, we went straight to the airport and got a 9pm flight that got in around 1130pm and I got to bed two hours later.
'I came out here today and hit for about half an hour beforehand, it's the quickest turnaround I've had in my career. Conditions are very different, the ball flies a bit and the clay is not quite the same. I thought I handled myself pretty well out there.
'The scheduling is not ideal but we had to complete the first round matches today. Maria (Sakkari, who beat her in Rabat) was in the same boat.'
Konta's
