Konta’s media attack misses the point

JOHANNA KONTA, Britain’s No 1 women’s tennis player, isn’t going to like this because she finds the truth hard to handle but here’s a quick reminder of her record at the French Open anyway. She’s never won a match in the main draw. She lost in the first round in 2015. She lost in the first round in 2016. She lost in the first round in 2017. Konta (left) lost in the first round this year, too, but this year, suddenly, it was all the media’s fault. The collective crime was occasionally mentioning her poor record at Roland Garros. She’s our leading tennis player, has played in grand slam semifinals, has been praised for her performances, is widely liked and admired by journalists, including me, and now she’s saying being reminded of her Paris record didn’t ‘make it easy’.

Konta’s heightened sensibilities, it appears, require that when asking her questions we refer to her at all times as ‘the reigning French Open champion’ and maintain, when in her company, that she’s won the tournament every time she’s entered it.

That way, she doesn’t get too downhearted. In her diatribe, she went on to ask how journalists would react if someone said their work every year at the French Open had been ‘crap’. Well, if enough of them were saying it, I’d do my damnedest to perform better the year after. Maybe I’d succeed, maybe I wouldn’t, but I wouldn’t shoot the messenger.

I’d make getting better a point of pride. Konta, it appears, doesn’t work that way.