‘I’m not here to have a reaction or manage other people’s expectations, I’m here for me’
A Deep South epiphany has put Johanna Konta up in the top locker room, she tells
Johanna Konta’s tour of sacred tennis sites continues this week at the All England Club, where the late withdrawal of Victoria Azarenka has bumped her upstairs into the locker room reserved for the top 16 seeds. For a woman who required a wild card to play at Wimbledon last year, ranked No 126 as she was then, this represents a spectacular rise.
Konta enjoyed a similar boost in status at last month’s French Open, where she was upgraded to the elite changing facility under Court Philippe Chatrier, only to lose to the unseeded Julia Goerges in the first round.
But then clay-court tennis is not her preferred medium. She prefers the greensward, as she demonstrated this weekend by reaching the semi-final in her home town of Eastbourne.
“I’ve got my locker,” said Konta. “It’s nice and quiet. Downstairs is a lot busier as there’s a lot more players around. I’m sure it can get busy, as well. I was excited to see if there’s any difference. But the showers are the same size. The towels look the same. Once that initial excitement of something new is done, you start thinking about things that are more important.”
Does she see any one-upmanship in the locker room, any mind games among the players? “Those sort of things only affect people that let it affect them,” she replies, without denying that these things go on. “I say ‘good morning’ to everyone, ‘goodbye’, ‘how are you’, ‘thank you’ – very simple things. But I also take a lot of pride in my work. I’m mainly here to work, so I try not to spend any of my time thinking about mind games.”
Konta’s first match on Tuesday is likely to be scheduled on Centre Court, in front of an audience who might not even have heard of her 12 months ago.
Many will be unfamiliar with her little rituals – the exaggerated bouncing of the ball before each serve, the placing of the water bottles just so in her bag. But if she can deliver on her potential, and emulate her run to the fourth round of September’s US Open – or, even better, the semi-final of January’s Australian Open – then her profile will escalate rapidly.
“I really don’t [know what to expect] because I’ve never been in the shoes of Andy [Murray] or Tim [Henman],” Konta said. “I don’t know what they experience. For me, this will be a new thing. I’m looking forward to it.
“Maybe subconsciously there are certain energies or emotions that go along with a slam. There’s more people around, more buzz. But, equally, I’m here to play, not to have a reaction or manage other people’s expectations. I’m here for me.”
For all her weapons on the court – the punishing groundstrokes and the heavy serve – Konta’s greatest asset is her clarity of thought. Her conquest of the rankings began around a year ago, and stemmed not from any technical tweak but from the understanding that she needed to separate her self-worth from her results.
This shift in her emotional climate can be traced back to the early months of 2015, and a low-key trip to the Deep South of the United States. “I was in Mississippi and Alabama playing some $25,000 and $50,000 tournaments,” Konta told The Daily Telegraph last month. “It’s no secret I had lost my way for a little bit there. But I really started appreciating just being healthy and – it sounds corny – being in the sunshine and being alive and breathing the fresh air and meeting some really great people and being active and getting to compete. That was when I really started enjoying playing the sport again.”
Konta has since made a point of rating herself not on outcomes but on effort. This made for a few oddball exchanges in Melbourne in January. After her semi-final defeat to Angelique Kerber, a reporter asked her if she was “hurting”, whereupon she wrinkled her forehead and replied, “What, physically?” The concept of disappointment at a defeat, even one that denied her a first Grand Slam final, has been banished from her universe. At least, as long as she gave her all.
“You won’t speak to any player on the tour who has not dreamt of being No 1 in the world and winning multiple Grand Slams,” said Konta last week. “But my focus is on a continuous desire to keep improving. If you ever get to the state where you say, ‘I am really the best I can be,’ then I think you are coming towards your retirement.”
‘I take a lot of pride in my work. I’m mainly here to work, so I try not to spend any of my time thinking about mind games’