TEARY KONTA QUITS AT 30

BY

JO KONTA yesterday announced her retirement – but knew her time was up when she burst into tears shortly after her US Open withdrawal in August.

Konta has ended a professional career that saw her reach No.4 in the world and make it to the Wimbledon semi-finals in

2017 – the first British woman to achieve the feat in 39 years. The 30-yearold (right) also made the last four at the 2016

Australian Open and the

2019 French Open.

Konta has not played since pulling out of the US

Open the night before it began, but had wanted to take time to make sure the call to retire from the game was the right one.

“It was nothing to do with injuries or physical issues. It just felt like the time to retire, given where

I was in my life and what tennis asks of you,” said Australian-born Konta, who moved to the UK at

14 and switched allegiance in 2012.

“It felt like the moment to say full stop. There are a lot of highs and lows that come with being an elite sports person and I wanted to give myself space to let emotions settle.

“I felt like I would just know when I was ready.

“But I remember when I got back from the US, that’s when it kind of culminated. It’s when I felt like the decision was coming. Not too long after that, I held my racket when I was putting it away and I started crying. “So in that sense, it is a break-up. “But it is amicable because I don’t look back on my career and judge it on everything it took from me. I do look back on it and just see everything that it gave me and everything it’s allowed me to experience.

“And I have finished still loving the sport.”

Konta (below, at the Mirror’s Pride of Sport event in 2019) is due to marry fiance Jackson Wade shortly, and plans to start a family loom large on the horizon – something that she has always said she would do once her career was over.

It was her dramatic run to the semi-final at Wimbledon in 2017 that first made her such a familiar figure – she was beaten 6-4 6-2 by Amerian superstar Venus Williams – but, two years later, when she seemed on course for a repeat, a defeat in the quarter-finals by then world No.54 Barbora Strycova caused national frustration.

But, even as she hangs up her racket, she refuses for a moment to contemplate what might have been.

“Through my own resilience and through the guidance of others I got to live my dreams.” she said.

“So I don’t think I will look back on any matches with any sort of feeling other than joy that I have had such a wonderful career.”