Role model will inspire next generation

When Johanna Konta stepped onto Centre Court yesterday, you would have forgiven her for being a little weak at the knees. After all, with millions watching at home, she was just two matches away from making history.

Yet, if there is one thing we have come to learn about Konta, it is that she has a core of steel. Even when faced with the Konta-mania that has blossomed over the past fortnight, her focus has never wavered. The atmosphere was not the Centre Court carnival we have seen so many times before. This was tense. Every time someone shouted “Come on, Venus” – and there were a few – they were drowned out by a nervous chorus of “Go Jo!”

The only time we glimpsed Konta’s frustration was in the tightening of her ponytail before big points. Blink and you would have missed it. It is this tunnel vision that Virginia Wade thinks will propel Konta to grand-slam victory. After yesterday’s match she praised her “dedication and determination” and said that Konta could come back next year and win, or at least “make it to the final and progress that little bit more”.

Britain’s dream of a Wimbledon champion may be over for 2017 but – in a year dogged by accusations of sexist scheduling of matches on the show courts – the internal fire of the nation’s No 1 woman is exactly what we needed to remind us just how exciting the women’s game really is.

What is more, she has the potential to inspire the girls coming up. In 2012, Konta was outside the top 200. By 2016, she had become Britain’s first top-10 woman in more than 30 years. She will now enter the top five, something she said post-match was a “nice club to be in” but with which she is still “not satisfied”.

“I’d like to think I’m inspiring both boys and girls to play,” she added. Surely there can be no doubt that her shining example not only of talent, but grit and determination, is inspirational indeed.