Konta keeping her focus on fitness
JOHANNA Konta will be training outside on the clay courts at the National Tennis Centre this week while Great Britain face Mexico in the Billie Jean King Cup play-offs indoors, but she insists she has not turned her back on the competition.
Heather Watson will lead the team in the absence of British number one Konta, who is prioritising preparation for the forthcoming clay-court tournaments on the WTA Tour.
Konta, who played a key role in earning promotion to World Group II in 2019, is continuing to manage a knee condition and cited the need to give the joint time to adapt to a different surface for her decision to miss the hard-court tie.
Britain should prevail without the 29-year-old, which would give them the chance to compete for a spot at next year’s finals event, and Konta could return in 2022.
She said: “Had it been on clay, that could have been a different conversation. I’m definitely not ruling myself out, I would love to still play in the competition.
“But I will definitely have to decide in a way that I know it will fit with the needs of my body.” The world number 18 plans to begin her clay-court campaign in Stuttgart next week and is hoping for a run of tournaments after a stop-start 18 months.
Since Konta’s knee issue forced a premature end to her resurgent 2019 season, she has played just 13 tournaments, winning more than one match in a week only twice.
Since the last of those at the Western & Southern Open last August, the ellesse athlete has won four of 11 matches, with another setback coming at the Australian Open when she suffered an abdominal injury and had to retire mid-match.