Eastbourne’s Johanna Konta will tumble out of the top 30 after suffering another first-round defeat at the French Open.

The British number one was defending ranking points from her brilliant run to the semi-finals at Roland Garros in 2019 but has not won a match on any other occasion she has played on the Parisian clay.

Konta led early in the first set against Romanian Sorana Cirstea, who beat her at the US Open last summer, but made far too many errors thereafter and fell to a 7-6 (5) 6-2 defeat.

It continued a poor season so far for the 30-year-old, who has only won three matches in 2021.

The 19th seed looked comfortable initially and moved into a 4-2 lead but the errors began to mount – she made 30 unforced in total – and Cirstea clawed her way back.

Several costly errors came in the tie-break, and Cirstea was much the better player in the second set, the world number 54 easing to victory in an hour and 30 minutes against her frustrated opponent.

Konta’s defeat means Cameron Norrie is the only British singles player through to the second round, while her slide down the rankings could yet get significantly worse, with the British number one defending a lot of points at Wimbledon and the US Open.

However, Konta will be hoping that she can back to winning ways on home turf later this month as she takes part in the LTA’s 2021 Viking International Eastbourne at Devonshire Park.

The British No.1 has enjoyed plenty of success at Devonshire Park making runs to the semifinals in both 2015 and 2016.

She will compete in a very talented field at the competition which features six of the top ten ranked players in the world.

World No.4 Ayrna Sabalenka from Belarus leads the field and will be hoping to recapture the form that took her all the way to the final in 2018.

Joining her will be three Grand Slam champions, 2019 Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin from USA, currently ranked No.5 and making her debut in Eastbourne, 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu from Canada, who sits at No.7 in the rankings and 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek from Poland, World No.9.

Ukrainian Elina Svitolina at No.6 and defending champion Czech Karolina Pliskova at No.10 make up a strong showing from the top ten.

Limited tickets are available for the Viking International Eastbourne are available at https://www.lta.org.uk/major-tennis-events/british-major-events/viking-international-eastbourne/tickets/