Clever serve and wild support can give Jo the edge

YOU can easily be distracted by the quirky routines in Jo Konta’s serve, those little skips and the odd way she bounces the ball — but don’t be fooled. Once the motion is properly under way it is very clean and functional, and its reliability is one reason I make her the slight favourite to beat Venus Williams today. Not much goes wrong on the Konta serve — for example, you very rarely see her havingng to catch her ball toss — and dI I was very impressed with h it during her defeat of Simona Halep. Konta knows exactly what she is trying to do. She is what I call a big ‘V’ server, in that she likes to aim out wide when serving bothh into the deuce and advantage sides of the court.t She concentrates on picking her spots, rather than blasting it and trying to hit aces, but there is still speed on it at around 110-112mph. Her strategy is to set herself up for the opening shot in the rally, which she loves to go for. She plays ‘first-strike’ tennis, always wanting to dictate the point by getting her retaliation in first. One word of warning. While watching her on Tuesday I thought that when serving on the deuce side she might be dragging her back foot (her right foot) across so that it fractionally goes over into the advantage side of the court. That is a fault, and there are a few players I have spotted doing it, but it rarely gets called. I see the second serve as the area where she has an advantage over Venus. When they played each other in Miami this year she really hurt Williams’s more vulnerable second delivery on the return and she is going to have to do so again. I also like the fact that Konta has been severely tested this fortnight and come through, which has not happenedhappene to Venus. KontaKont will also derive confidenceco from her 3-2 careerc record against thet American. But do not underestimate Venus, who is far more familiar with matches of this magnitude. She hash two big assets on gra grass: her first serve skids throu through awkwardly and sheh lik likes the low bounce on her forehand, much more when she is having to play above her hips. I will be very interested to see if Venus goes for a high first-serve percentage to protect her second serve, and maybe takes a bit off it to achieve more consistency. Above all, the thing I have been most impressed about with Konta is her composure, and the crowd will surely make a difference. What really struck me on Tuesday was that this was the first time I had heard Andy Murray-type levels of support for her. On balance I fancy it will be a first British women’s finalist for 40 years on Saturday.