Weekly Lesson: Konta's positive spin on losses

In the second round of Dubai, No. 7-seeded Johanna Konta lost to Daria Kasatkina in a three-hour marathon, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2, but you wouldn’t know it by her demeanor afterward.

The British No. 1 spoke positively about her tennis, insisting that there were positives to take away and that "it would have been nice" if she’d won one of her two match points in the second set, but she didn’t, and that’s just "part of the game."

Konta has been on the struggle bus since reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon last year, winning only two matches during the rest of 2017. Her 2018 season hasn’t been much better, producing a second-round exit at the Australian Open to No. 105-ranked lucky loser Bernarda Pera. This latest loss to to Kasatkina, from a winning position no less, would seem to continue Konta’s tailspin.

The 26-year-old seems to know differently, however. From the outside looking in, the results look the same as they did in the second half of the 2017 season. Konta’s vote of confidence in herself seems to indicate that she's at least identified what to work on to change course. She did switch coaches during the offseason (from Wim Fisette to Michael Joyce) and change that big takes time to settle.

The world No. 12's resolve hints at a willingness to accept one of the oldest proverbs in sports: sometimes the results have to get worse before they get better.

It would be no surprise if they start to get better for Konta just as Wimbledon rolls back into view.