Konta crisis as coach gets axe
BELGIAN INSPIRED JO TO WIMBLEDON SEMIS
THE strange unravelling of Jo Konta’s year was completed yesterday when she split from her coach and ended her season. In mid- July, Konta appeared on the cusp of becoming Britain’s first female Wimbledon singles champion since Virginia Wade, making the semi-finals and rising to No 4 in the world.
Now she is looking for someone to replace the Belgian who helped take her there, Wim Fissette, who looked to have done the job you would expect from someone with such a strong coaching pedigree.
The 26-year- old also said she would not be taking up her place as the on- site reserve at next week’s WTA Finals in Singapore, with continuing foot problems cited as the reason.
That will cost her a minimum of the £52,000 fee she would have received for turning up, and she will also miss the consolation event the following week in Zhuhai.
In a statement Konta stressed the split was amicable and mutual. ‘I wish Wim all the best,’ she said. ‘We’ve achieved a lot together and I want to thank him for all his patience, hard work and expertise.’ Fissette ( below) tweeted his good wishes to her.
The decision is only slightly less surprising than her parting with Spaniard Esteban Carril late last year, not long after their partnership had earned her the award as the WTA Tour season’s most improved player.
Appearances can be deceiving but everything looked to be going well in the Konta camp up to the US Open, having won titles in Sydney and Miami and earned close to £2million in prize money. The death of her sports psychologist Juan Coto, who took his own life in November 2016, did not appear to have had any adverse effect on her tennis.
But then a run of five defeats began in August, which culminated in an inept display at the Wuhan Open this month, which has turned out to be her last match of the year. Even after that it took a remarkable and unforeseen surge of form from Caroline Garcia to edge Konta out of the eighth place for the $7m (£5.3m) Finals event in Singapore. She is now ranked No 10 in the world.
Fissette — who has also coached Victoria Azarenka and Kim Clijsters — has been around long enough to know coaching can be a precarious game. Konta’s compatriot Laura Robson also recently split with her latest coach, the Swede Johan Ortegren.
While Andy Murray is battling a degenerative hip condition in his attempts to be ready for January’s Australian Open, the priority for Konta’s new coach will be to make sure she is in the right place mentally in time for the new year.
The calm determination of her on-court demeanour has been the most striking thing in her hugely impressive rise, and in January she has the challenge of defending hefty ranking points, including the Sydney title and a quarter-final at the Australian Open.
Konta said she would be keeping on her other staff while ‘the goal is to get a new coach or coaches in place as soon as possible’.