1981, but was beaten in the final by Ashleigh Barty. However the resurgence in form was temporary as following this Konta suffered a first round loss in Birmingham, a second round loss in Eastbourne, and a second round loss at Wimbledon. Post-Wimbledon, her ranking dropped to 50 – her lowest since September 2015. Konta's first tournament after Wimbledon was in San Jose. She was paired her with multiple Grand Slam champion Serena Williams in the first round and handed Williams the heaviest defeat of her career, the Briton winning 6–1, 6–0. She then beat Sofia Kenin, before losing to fourth seed Elise Mertens in the quarterfinals. She followed this by reaching the third round in Canadian Open, before losing to Elina Svitolina and then losing in the first round of Cincinnati to Aryna Sabalenka. Konta's struggles had seen ranking had slip outside the top 32, leading to her being drawn against sixth seed Caroline Garcia in the opening round of the US Open; she lost to continue a poor run of form in Grand Slam matches since her Wimbledon semifinal run of the previous year. Post the US Open Konta entered the Pan Pacific Open in Japan where she lost in the second round to Donna Vekić in two tight sets. She lost to Ashleigh Barty in the first round of the Wuhan. She also lost to Julia Görges in the opening round of the Beijing. Following these defeats Konta split with coach Michael Joyce and agreed a trial with Dimitri Zavialoff for the final event of the regular WTA season in Moscow. This provided an upbeat ending for Konta as she defeated Elise Mertens, Daria Gavrilova and Aliaksandra Sasnovich to reach her second semifinal of the year. She lost to Daria Kasatkina in the last four, who went on to win the tournament. This run moved Konta's end-of-year ranking up to 39 in the world. Following the successful trial at the Kremlin Cup, Konta hired Zavialoff as her coach on a permanent basis. 2019: Return to top 20, deep runs in majors Konta started the year at the Brisbane International by defeating third seed Sloane Stephens before losing to Ajla Tomljanović in the second round. She received a lucky loser berth from qualifying for the Sydney International but withdrew with a neck injury. At the Australian Open she defeated Tomljanovic in a rematch of their Brisbane meeting, before losing