The 23-time Grand Slam winner struggled mightily against the British No. 1 and former winner Konta, who crushed Williams 6-1, 6-0 in just 51 minutes on the main Stadium.
Williams, who was playing her first match since dropping the Wimbledon final, is trying to regain her top form after missing most of the 2017 season due to a pregnancy.
The 36-year-old Williams tried to shrug off the worst loss of her hall of fame career.
“I don’t know. I have so many things on my mind that I don’t have time to be shocked about a loss where I clearly wasn’t at my best,” she said.
Williams, who was seeded sixth, managed just nine winners against 25 unforced errors and had her serve broken six times.
She looked nothing like the player that dominated the Tour for years, winning 72 singles titles and earning more than $86 million in prize money.
“She obviously wasn’t playing her best level — nowhere near — so I tried to play the match on my terms and just do what I can out here,” Konta said.
Both women were playing their first match since Wimbledon, where Williams finished runner-up to Angelique Kerber and Konta lost in the second round to eventual quarter-finalist Dominika Cibulkova.
The loss to Konta comes just over a month after Williams complained that she is being discriminated against by the sport’s drug testing program because of the number of samples she is being asked to provide.
