Games were best present for Johanna
JOHANNA KONTA is known for never looking forwards and never looking back. She works hard at staying forever in the present, a mental trick that has helped her power up the world rankings to her current position of No14.
But as she returned to the US Open, the scene of her Grand Slam breakthrough last summer, she is still buzzing from her Olympic experience. For once she will look back, and her greatest memory is of sharing accommodation with the golfers in Rio and spending time with Justin Rose.
“Justin said to me, ‘You’ve been having such a good year’, and I thought, ‘My God, he knows who I am’,” Konta gushed, clearly still starstruck.
“I had a couple of those moments, surprised that people plenty of ranking points on offer and the stakes are high. And that is when she reverts to type and anchors herself in the here and now.
“I’m exactly the same person,” she said. “I hope to think I’m a year older and wiser, I have had a lot of experiences in a short space of time at this level.
“There wasn’t so much of a warm-up period, it was very much just on the tour this year and that has been an incredible experience, one I hope to continue every year for the rest of my career.
“Otherwise I’m just as happy, hard-working and motivated as I was last year.”
Konta’s first challenge in New York