THE NEW DARLING19 OF CENTRE COURT
AS THE sun rises over Wimbledon today, no one will be feeling the pressure more than Johanna Konta. The first British woman to reach the semifinals since 1978, the 26-year-old will be facing the formidable Venus Williams but whatever the outcome it will have been a triumph.
She has shot up in the world rankings, moving from 150 two years ago to No 7 today, but the achievement is not just hers, it is also her family’s. Konta is just the latest tennis player to come from a background in which her parents put everything into their child’s training, enduring some financial hardship along the way. But the gamble has paid off and there are now real hopes that she can become the first British woman to win Wimbledon since Virginia Wade 40 years ago.
Konta it turns out is actually something of an enigma: on the one hand she comes across as a bit of an ice queen, on the other she spends her spare time baking and brings in muffins for her team.
Andy Murray has said she should “let the emotions out on court” – JoKo has not responded to this because she doesn’t respond that much to anything. Her reputation for aloofness was not helped after a pre-recorded interview with Jonathan Ross. The presenter asked her whom she would like to play against or whom she was wary of. “This is such a boring question,” said Jo to the mightily affronted Wossy. If nothing else the woman knows her own mind.
She was born in Sydney to Hungarian parents: sporting achievement runs in the family as one of her grandfathers Tamás Kertész played for Hungary’s football team in the 1950s and Jo also showed early promise as a runner. Her father Gábor, who had been previously married, worked as a hotel manager while her mother Gabriella was a dentist. She grew up in Collaroy on Sydney’s Northern Beaches and was introduced to tennis at the age of eight in an after-school programme. It was obvious very quickly that she had an extraordinary talent and by the age of 12 she was being home schooled to give her as much time as possible to focus on her game.
SOME early indication of the sacrifices she was going to have to make came when the decision was made to send Johanna, aged 14, to Spain to train at the Sánchez-Casal Tennis Academy, where Andy Murray also spent some time. Arguably it was the making of her but it wasn’t an easy situation for a child. “I was 14 in Barcelona and when I went there I didn’t see my mum for six months and my dad for four months,” Jo said in an interview last year.
“Australia is far from Spain but I don’t remember how long or how short the days felt. I think what was most difficult for my parents was that if anything went wrong they couldn’t say, ‘OK, we’ll be RISING STAR: Johanna, right, and with her mother Gabriella, above, is now No7 in the world rankings WINNING TEAM: Dad Gábor giving her the thumbs-up, and boyfriend Jackson, second row, right there in a couple of hours’. Flights cost thousands of dollars and even on a good connection you’re still 26 hours away.”
Money has, until recently at least, been an issue: in 2012 a county court judgment was taken out against her father over unpaid coaching fees. By that time the family were in the UK: unhappy that their daughter was so far from home Gábor and Gabriella decided to relocate to the UK and moved to Eastbourne in East Sussex. Gábor is now manager of Ashdown Park Hotel and Country Club in East Grinstead while Gabriella is still working as a dentist.
As Hungarian nationals they had the right to settle anywhere in the EU. In 2012 Jo took British nationality, prompting a fair amount of ruefulness in the Australian media about how they had lost one of their own.
“It’s a compliment for you guys to be interested in my Australian roots,” she responded quite coolly. “But unfortunately it’s going to be a very boring answer. I’m very Daily Express Thursday July 13 2017 happy, very pleased to be representing Great Britain.
“That is my home. That is where my heart is. That’s where my parents are. That’s where I grew up essentially. So when people ask where I’m from, where is home, that’s where it is.”
She did, however, allow herself to joke that she was the female Jason Bourne, having three passports: British, Australian and Hungarian. Any trace of the Australian accent is long gone.
JOHANNA’S coach is Wim Fissette but it is widely acknowledged that one of her greatest influences has been Juan Coto, a “mind guru”. Jo’s game improved significantly after she met him: he taught her how to combat her anxiety on court through mindfulness techniques.
She was devastated when he took his own life last year but continues to be guided by his advice: “I know that Juan would be supportive of me continuously improving [her emotional side] because it’s more than just tennis, it’s about my life,” she said at the end of 2016. “He’s still very much a part of everything that I do, everything that I will continue to do in this sport and this career, and most likely beyond that as well.”
But it’s not all mindfulness, hard work and no play. For a start Jo relaxes by cooking, specifically baking: “Today I had white chocolate and raspberry muffins,” she told reporters at Wimbledon earlier this week.
“So far they are the biggest hit [with her team]. Previous to that it was a chocolate chip muffin. I’ve finally gotten the chance to stay at home a little bit and use my oven more than anything. It’s more the fact that I have an oven, that I’m using it, and not necessarily for relaxation purposes. Now it’s kind of become a habit. My team are demanding the muffins. I have a very high-maintenance team.”
Jo also has a personal life. Earlier this year she was reported to be seeing Kether Clouder, a former tennis coach who is now a systems operator at Hawk-Eye, but her current boyfriend is photographer Jackson Wade, who manages video and photography at the Lawn Tennis Association. A cool cucumber like Jo would hardly be expected to talk in depth about her private life and indeed she doesn’t, saying of Wade: “He has been around since Miami and no one cares.”
If she does indeed win against Venus Williams in today’s semifinal she’s going to find out that actually quite a lot of people care. As for her proud parents, who moved continents to give their talented daughter a sporting chance, they will be more delighted than anyone at the progress Jo has made.
Are we about to see the first female British Wimbledon champion since 1977? Watch this space.