Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
OH NO! JO KO
Brit suffers painful semi-final loss ...but this is just the beginning for Konta
UNFORTUNATELY for Johanna Konta, on pockmarked Centre Court, there was no hole big enough to swallow her up.
Instead, she had to make do with a prompt dash to lockerroom refuge.
Overwhelmed, in all facets of a facile Venus Williams win, this was a painful staging post on a journey she hopes will take her to the top.
And judging by the character and quality Konta has shown this past fortnight, it WILL take her to the top.
But this was a brutal tutorial in what it will take and, under pressure from all angles, she buckled. There can be no sugarcoating.
Her forehand failed, her nerve, perhaps ever so slightly, failed.
Had they held, victory chances would still have been straw-slim such was the majesty of Williams’ game.
Konta’s shortcomings at this rarefied level should not scythe even an inch from the towering height of Williams’ achievement.
At the age of 37, this will be her ninth final. She was won five, the last in 2008. It is a narrative far more remarkable than Konta’s thrilling passage to a second Grand Slam semi-final and her climb into the world’s top five.
Yet Konta will have regrets. She might not care to voice them but they will be there. The obvious one will be the failure to seize a moment of opportunity. When the first break points, two of them, were earned and not taken by Konta in the ninth game of an attritional opening set, an inevitability dropped on Centre Court like a blanket. It smothered Konta.
The errors mounted, there were 25 on the forehand flank, and Williams sensed weakness.
Considering the 11-year age gap, there was no discernible physical advantage.
Maybe the more arduous nature of Konta’s path to the last four neutralised that difference.
Konta had played for more than three hours longer than Williams.
Maybe the sudden swirl of attention tightened her a little.
Two weeks ago, she enjoyed relative anonymity. Now, the nation knows her, knows she is going to see U2, knows what muffins she bakes, knows her family life.
Dealing with the attention will be another learning curve.
She will do it in her own processed way, just as she will analyse a match pretty much dictated by Williams.
But while she was absolutely right that Williams won simply because she was the much better player, Konta did admit there are deficiencies which need attention.
She said: “I need to take the good things that I did, but I’m also very aware of the things I can do better. I’m more than anything looking forward to working on those.
“I definitely have a lot more to improve on. There’s a lot of exciting things that I can still get better at, which is exciting for me and exciting for my team and my own development.”
After the initial reaction Konta cut a positive figure. Quite right. She should be a fixture in the later stages of this and other Grand
Slams for years to come. And those regrets will be few.
No other women’s player, bar her sister, would have lived with
Venus in this form.
Should
Williams overcome
Garbine
Muguruza tomorrow, it will be the crowning point of a remarkable
20-year journey.
Konta’s has a long way to go. It should be fun.