Johanna Konta suffered her earliest Australian Open exit with a first-round loss to Tunisian Ons Jabeur at Melbourne Park.

The British number one was seeded 12th but expectations were tempered by the fact she had only played one match since a quarter-final exit at the US Open in early September.

A knee injury curtailed her season and Konta revealed last month that she might not even make the trip Down Under.

She will be heading home a lot sooner than she would have hoped after going down 6-4 6-2 to world number 78 Jabeur, who has the type of unpredictable game that even a match-tight Konta finds hard to deal with.

Indeed, Jabeur had beaten Konta in Eastbourne last summer and a tight first set went the way of the Tunisian when she broke in the 10th game, Konta paying the price for not making enough first serves.

The 28-year-old was not playing badly but she made loose errors at costly times and, after breaking serve to start the second set, lost four games in a row.

Asked if her lengthy lay-off was a factor in her performance, Konta said: โ€œI think definitely. Itโ€™s an unfortunate thing. Itโ€™s part of the sport and itโ€™s part of also the way I play, and itโ€™s something that will come with time and matches.

โ€œI think ultimately the main thing was to start playing again, and I am. And how I physically felt out there is obviously a massive tick for me compared to where I was in September of last year.

โ€œI think giving myself that time to find a level that I want to play is going to be important.โ€

Konta had always made at least the second round in four previous appearances in the main draw at Melbourne Park, while this is the first time since a second-round loss to Garbine Mugurza here 12 months ago that she has not reached at least the quarter-finals of a slam.