Konta without a coach after ending Hogstedt trial
After yesterday’s straight-sets defeat by Garbine Muguruza in Rome, Johanna Konta confirmed that she was no longer working with Thomas Hogstedt, the coach who accompanied her during her recent appearances in New York.
In her post-match video conference, Konta said her collaboration with Hogstedt had only been for a trial period of three weeks. As such, she did not consider him to be an official coach appointment to place alongside the five main coaches she has worked with since 2016.
“It wasn’t something that worked for me really, or for either of us,” said Konta of Hogstedt, who has previously coached four major champions in Maria Sharapova, Li
Na, Caroline Wozniacki and Simona Halep. “Things have to match up. You have to be able to bring the best out of each other, and we didn’t feel that it was gonna be a good fit.”
Konta bridled at the suggestion that she is a serial sacker of coaches, explaining that the recent departure of Dimitri Zavialoff – the softly spoken Swiss who helped introduce some new variety to her game last season – had not been her choice.
“I don’t think I change coaches often,” she said. “I worked with Dimitri for a year and a half, and actually I didn’t want that to end. That ended because of personal circumstances. Since then I have continued to work with [assistant coach] Dan Smethurst, so there is a lot of continuation there. I met with Thomas for three weeks. I didn’t hire him as a coach. I was getting to know him.”
In Rome, Konta was accompanied only by long-time fitness trainer Gill Myburgh. She beat Irina-camelia Begu convincingly in her opening match before going down to Muguruza yesterday by a 6-4, 6-1 scoreline.
Now she will return home for a few days before travelling to Paris for the French Open, the tournament where she reached the semifinals last year.
The new US Open champion Naomi Osaka will not be there. She withdrew yesterday, citing lingering soreness in the left hamstring she kept heavily strapped up for most of her matches in New York.