Konta’s blow as eco-home plan for parents fails

Jo Konta has admitted her disappointment at withdrawing plans to build a dream home for her parents out of her tournament earnings.

the British no 1, who begins her US open campaign tomorrow by playing sixth seed Caroline Garcia, pledged to buy a house when she made £940,000 by winning last year’s Miami open.

But she revealed that privacy concerns contributed to her pulling out of the project this summer, in addition to objections from the local parish council that received widespread publicity.

Konta was in negotiations to build an eco-home in Sussex’s ashdown Forest but the scheme did not go down well locally.

‘We have looked at different options, either buying a home, renovating or buying a piece of land and building a home,’ Konta (below) said at Flushing Meadows.

‘ We withdrew it because quite frankly I don’t want to live in a place where everybody and the cat knows where it is. I believe the owners of the land — I don’t own the land, it was all down to whether the planning application was going to come through — is still pursuing to sell the land and build on it.’

Konta’s ranking has fallen to 46 this year but she has a 3-2 record against the talented French no 1.

She is buoyed by having thrashed Serena Williams recently in San Jose, although the american later revealed that she was distracted by news prior to the match that the man who shot dead her halfsister 15 years ago had been given parole.

Konta was unaware at the time. She said: ‘I was clear on the gameplan I wanted to execute and I was going to do that to the best of my ability so I purposely paid no attention to necessarily what she was going to be doing on the other side of the court.’ aside from andy Murray, three other British players are in first-round action today. Kyle Edmund is first on against Italian Paolo Lorenzi while world no 66 Cam norrie is up against australian Jordan thompson. Heather Watson, who came through qualifying, faces experienced Russian Ekaterina Makarova.