Johanna Konta lost her fourth straight singles match at the hands of world No. 159 Oceane Dodin of France, going down 6-3 6-4 at the St Petersburg Ladies Open.

The world No. 14 was making only her third singles appearance since her quarter-final loss to Elina Svitolina at the US Open in September, having been given a bye to the final 16 in St Petersburg.

Konta, 28, made her return to the court following a knee injury when she and doubles partner Caroline Garcia won 6-3 3-6 10-5 against Germany's Vivian Heisen and Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine on Monday, but has not enjoyed the same success in singles.

The two players matched each other through the first seven games, as the score went with serve until Dodin stepped up and won five games in a row.

Konta then found herself a break down in the second set and failed to recover the deficit as she crashed out of the tournament.

Next up for the British No. 1, she will team up with Garcia to face Sweden's Cornelia Lister and Czech Republic's Renata Voracova in the quarter-finals of the doubles in Russia.

Konta opted out of Great Britain's Fed Cup tie with Slovakia last weekend, which they lost, but captain Anne Keothavong will reportedly try to persuade her to return for their must-win play-off against Mexico on April 17-18.