Konta leads Brit charge
‹No 6 seed joins Murray, Bedene and Watson in third round First time since 1997 four home players have progressed so far
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Johanna Konta show. After five years of disappointment at Wimbledon, our finest female player since Jo Durie enjoyed a belated unveiling yesterday.
Those who follow tennis from January to November already know that Konta is something special. But you haven’t truly made it in Britain until you have made it on Centre Court. And yesterday’s 3hr 10min struggle with Donna Vekic, one of the most dangerous unseeded players in the draw, may well go down as the moment when Konta won her public over. It also contributed to the unusually high tally of four Britons in the third round, the most here since 1997.
Konta’s finest quality is her relentlessness of purpose, and how she needed it here. This match started out as a rugged baseline battle. But as a scorching day wore on, it switched from hand-to-hand combat into a snipers’ shootout.
Both players served like Boris Becker down the home stretch. They strung together 22 successive holds, occupying no less than 1hr 39min. It was the sort of tennis we might remember from men’s matches of the 1980s.
In the BBC’S post-match analysis, John Mcenroe suggested that “Some of the other women might be watching this and thinking about brushing up their own serves. It was amazing how many cheap points they got.”
Mcenroe’s comment, while flattering, might also point to the one chink in Konta’s game yesterday. She only put 59 per cent of Vekic’s serves back in court, missing six straight returns at one point, which reflected huge pressure back onto her own serve.
But then Vekic does have a blunderbuss up her sleeve, while Maria Sakkari – the little-known Greek whom Konta faces tomorrow – is more of a peashooter.
In any case, it seems churlish to carp when Konta fought so wholeheartedly. She could so easily have folded in those dying moments. Vekic – feeding off the victory she had inflicted on Konta in the Nottingham final two-and-a-half weeks ago – found a second wind and started slapping forehand winners in a manner that her watching boyfriend, world No5 Stan Wawrinka, would have admired.
In her last three service games, Konta found herself 0-30 down each time. This was not part of the “process” she so often speaks about, in which she has every element of her game under control. She was forced to wing it instead, mixing aces with high-kicking second serves, and managed to escape unscathed on each occasion. “Credit to @Jokonta91,” wrote Serena Williams’s coach Patrick Mouratoglou on his Twitter page, “who has been able to lift her level and hit good serves in order to hold her serve at 6-6 in the 3rd.”
When Konta finally brought up match point at 9-8 in the deciding set, it felt almost inevitable that Vekic would respond with an ace. But the reprieve was short-lived, as a Vekic forehand into the net two points later completed Konta’s 7-6, 4-6, 10-8 victory.
These two women have known each other for at least five years – Vekic may be Croatian, but she served her tennis apprenticeship under Tim Henman’s former coach David Felgate in north London – and the emotions flowed as Vekic wept bitterly into Konta’s shoulder. “We shared a moment at the end,” said Vekic afterwards. “That was tough. But I am having a great year – that’s why I’m not crying now.”
Konta was able to empathise, particularly after having lost that Nottingham final 2-6, 7-6, 7-5. “After such a battle, you feel both your own and her emotions,” she said. “Because there wasn’t much separating us, I could easily put myself in her shoes and feel what she was feeling. I was congratulating her and us for the battle that we presented
on Centre Court, which was a great atmosphere to be a part of.”
The crowd were in fine voice, particularly in those angst-filled final moments, despite the constant
danger of swallowing one of the flying ants which swarmed around the arena. “They were eating me alive at one stage,” said Vekic afterwards, while Konta added: “I have definitely taken home a few both in my belly and in my bags.”
Neither woman can have suffered from myrmecophobia, though, judging by the outstanding level they both sustained throughout the match.
The scorers credited them with a combined total of 97 winners, including 22 aces, but only 42 unforced errors. Almost 18 months after Konta reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open, she still feels like the best-kept secret in British sport. But that will surely change with a few more wins as bloody-minded as this one.
As the all-time great Billie Jean King wrote on her Twitter page: “Take a bow Jo and Donna. Was an absolute pleasure watching both of you leave it all on the court. Way to go for it!”