So desperate to win she made her big sister cry playing Monopoly
All hail Johanna Konta, the first British woman to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Or at least since 1978 when Virginia Wade made it into the last four – a year after being crowned the winner.
Yesterday, Miss Wade was back at Centre Court to watch women’s tennis history being made as the Eastbourne-based 26-year-old followed in her plimsolled footsteps.
It was a great victory for the pony-tailed player few outside tennis circles knew much about until last week.
Now of course, we all love her to bits. Come on, Konta!
Already we are talking sagely about her amazing serve. loving the way she keeps her focus and doesn’t scream on court. And admiring the gritty manner in which she clung on to beat the world No 2 in a heart-pounding match that had fans on the edge of their seats.
Her coach Wim Fissette says the secret weapon behind her fierce focus is learning her tactics off by heart and reciting them before matches. He explains: ‘I text her the game plan the night before and she reads it.
‘There are tactical messages but also some mental ones of what I feel is important that day. Five minutes before she goes on court she repeats the messages back to me.
‘You could say it is like a little exam and maybe a bit unusual but when she is 100 per cent clear about her intentions, that is when Jo plays her best matches.’
After yesterday’s match, the cool Konta gave a typically downbeat post- match press conference, proving that on and off the court, emotions are now something she packs away in the deep freeze of her soul.
‘I am much more process-orientated. I don’t give myself too much time to dream,’ she said of her future. Even Andy Murray has suggested that it might be good for Konta to ‘let the emotions out on court’.
This was like a bellowing moose advising a shy deer to let it all hang out just as the hunting season begins. I can’t see it happening any time soon; the occasional triple fist-pump is as demonstrative as Konta gets.
And after witnessing much of the player histrionics at Wimbledon this week, her demure cool is a blessed relief.
So who is Jo Konta, the potential tennis champ in waiting, a woman who bakes cakes to soothe her nerves and has a reputation for being, shall we say, somewhat frosty and rude?
This latter slight stems from an appearance on the Jonathan Ross show on ITV last year, yet it has always seemed rather unfair.
To many, Konta’s stilted efforts on the chat- show sofa seemed more awkward than impolite. like many professional athletes, she is not a show- pony nor a born entertainer.
During the pre-recorded conversation, Ross asked about people she would like to play against or people she was wary of playing.
She replied: ‘This is such a boring question.’ To which a peeved Ross hit back: ‘I’ll be the judge of that.’
Konta is someone who picked up a tennis racket at the age of eight and never really put it down again – her entire life has been in pursuit of sporting excellence, of pushing herself to her physical and mental limits. And you want jokes as well?
SOMETIMES you do get them. In an interview with BBC Today At Wimbledon host Clare Balding earlier this week, Konta was asked about the bakes she brings in for her team – with white chocolate and raspberry muffins proving particularly popular.
‘I’m feeling quite happy with how I’m growing as a muffin baker,’ she said. ‘I definitely feel that I’m continuously reinvesting the knowledge that I’m picking up from my previous batches.’
Born in Sydney to Hungarian parents (a grandfather played in
Hungary’s football team of the Fifties), Konta was homeschooled from the age of 12 so she could play tennis full-time.
She has said: ‘I knew at the age of nine I wanted to be the best player in the world. That’s the way it was. I don’t know why. I’m a competitive person, I guess.
‘My mum was reminding me recently that it was a nightmare when I was younger. Everything was a race. I have an elder halfsister [Emese] from my dad’s previous marriage, and I made her cry once playing Monopoly!’
The family moved to Spain where she attended the excellent tennis academy in Barcelona. At the age of 14, Jo relocated with her family to the UK, where she focused on becoming a professional.
She became a UK citizen in 2012. ‘It made me feel more settled. I wanted GBR next to my name for a very long time,’ she said.
But she admitted at the time: ‘I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know the National Anthem yet but please quiz me again, I promise I will. I’ve taken the Life In The UK test and was very happy I passed.’
She’s also described herself as ‘the female version of Jason Bourne’ [the movie CIA superassassin] because of her three passports – British, Australian and Hungarian.
MEANTIME, she’s been inching her way up the rankings, offending no one along the way. A former coach described her as ‘sweet, caring and very kind’. Current coach Mr Fissette, says he was first ‘ impressed by her mentality’ and knows that she can be a champion. She was introduced to Juan Coto, a socalled ‘mind guru’, in her early twenties, who helped temper her on- court anxiety and this led to much improved results on court. But then, to her devastation, Coto took his own life last year, aged 47.
His influence, though, remained. She has said: ‘Mindfulness is a great tool for me – a great habit to continue to nurture. Just having better perspective, and having trust in my own abilities to handle whatever situation.’
Indeed, one coach likened her to Buddha. Often described as ‘highly strung’ – a phrase that Konta cheerfully uses to describe herself – she regularly uses meditation skills and is known for her obsession with ‘staying in the process’.
So what of her private life? She has a crush on the Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, but since spring she has been dating photographer Jackson Wade (manager of video and photogra- phy at the Lawn Tennis Association and who comes from Newton Aycliffe in County Durham), but doesn’t like to talk about him because it ‘feels weird’.
At this moment, her biggest romance is with the Wimbledon crowd. And whether it is strawberries and screaming, or groaning and cheering, Wimbledon fans never do anything by halves.
If they love you, they love you with the passion of a teen in the hot flush of a first romance.
Jo Konta discovered their ardour this week and it set her on the road to victory.
‘A home crowd is that much more emotionally invested, living or dying with your points. The support I felt was phenomenal,’ she said of her match yesterday. I’m sure they’ll still love her tomorrow – whatever the result when she plays Venus Williams in the semi-final.