quarterfinal since August 2017 before retiring with a hip injury. She was unable to defend her title at Sydney the following week, losing in the first round. At the Australian Open, Konta was knocked out in the second round by world No. 123, lucky loser Bernarda Pera. Following the Australian Open, Konta played for Britain in the Fed Cup Europe/Africa Group 1. Following a straightforward win over Maria João Koehler, Konta 'survived a scare' to beat Anett Kontaveit as Britain beat hosts Estonia to set up a play-off against Hungary. Konta beat Fanny Stollár as Britain progressed to the World Group II play-offs. Britain were hoping to be drawn at home for the first time since 1993, but instead were handed a tie away to Japan. On resuming WTA play, Konta was eliminated prior to the quarterfinals of her next three tournaments, before failing to defend her title in Miami, losing in the fourth round to Venus Williams. She also exited early in the clay-court event at Charleston. Konta next played in Britain's Fed Cup tie with Japan. She won both her singles rubbers, beating Kurumi Nara and recently crowned Indian Wells champion Naomi Osaka. However Britain were beaten in the other two singles rubbers to send the tie to a deciding doubles. Konta and Heather Watson were brought in as late replacements to play this, and though they won the opening set against the Japanese pairing of Miyu Kato and Makoto Ninomiya, the hosts fought back to win the rubber and claim overall victory. After the Fed Cup Konta returned to clay court action. Her struggles on the surface continued as she suffered an early defeat in Madrid. Her form picked up in Rome, where she reached the third round before exiting to Jeļena Ostapenko. Konta lost in the first round of the French Open to No. 93 Yulia Putintseva in straight sets. At the time, she had never won a main-draw match at the French Open and in her post-match press conference she launched a scathing attack on the media. Grass brought an upturn as Konta reached her first final of the year in Nottingham, after defeating defending champion Donna Vekić in the semifinals in a rerun of the 2017 final of the same event. She was looking to become the first British player to win a WTA Tour level title on home soil since Sue Barker in