Konta sets up Venus rematch
. . . AS MURRAY NEARS COMEBACK
JO KOnTA and Andy Murray might prefer to forget the last six months, dogged either by a slump in form or the inability through injury to produce any form at all.
The spring may, however, herald an upturn in fortune with Murray finally able to start hitting balls again over the weekend and Konta starting to show signs of being the player who soared into the world’s top 10 a year ago.
While Konta’s defence of her Miami Open title continued with her earning a rematch against her Wimbledon semi-final conquerer venus Williams, Murray was tentatively returning to the court in the south of France following the hip surgery he had in early January.
The 30-year-old travelled to nice to train at the academy of Patrick Mouratoglou, the French coach of Serena Williams.
Murray was accompanied by coach Jamie Delgado, physio Shane Annun and trainer Matt Little. Clips emerged last night of him serving and rallying on the hard courts there at the beginning of a visit he hopes will eventually lead to a full comeback in the latter part of May, with the new Challenger event at Loughborough a target.
His movement looks less silky than that of the uber-athlete who made the 2017 French Open semi-finals, before his hip started to seriously hinder him, but it is a start.
The Scot remains a world away from south Florida and a tournament which, on Saturday, saw the defeat of roger Federer. That meant this is the first time since Hamburg in 2006 that none of the so- called ‘Big Four’ have made the third round of a Masters level ATP event.
As defending women’s champion, Konta sought to avoid being caught up in the slew of early upsets, that has also seen the removal of top seed Simona Halep and the blinkand-you-miss-it appearance of the younger Williams sister.
Facing world no 21 Elise Mertens, a semi-finalist at the Australian Open in January, looked a difficult assignment for someone low on confidence and under the pressure of protecting a large ranking-point haul from 12 months ago. Instead Konta made it look a total breeze, needing 65 minutes to win 6-2, 6-1.
Today in the last 16, she faces Williams, who took nearly three hours and saved three match points to overcome Holland’s Kiki Bertens.
‘She played incredibly well in that semi,’ said Konta, recalling last summer’s Wimbledon disappointment. ‘I didn’t neck a Ben & Jerry’s after that or anything because I also took a lot of good things from those two weeks.’
While there had been a degree of assistance from the six double faults thrown in by Mertens in the first set, this was the British no 1 looking purposeful.
Prior to coming here, her record in 2018 was a modest 6-6. But there has to be a certain comfort returning to a place which has been the scene of such a career highlight.
‘Obviously the stadium holds good memories,’ said Konta.
‘I didn’t think of last year when I walked out but I warmed up on the court earlier and then I thought this is quite nice. You let in the good feelings of past experiences on certain courts. I think next time I play on the Centre Court at Wimbledon I will feel the same way.’