When asked what it would feel like to be a British champion at Wimbledon alongside Andy Murray, Johanna Konta paused, grinned and, trapped into stating the obvious but unwilling to elaborate, uttered “amazing”.
The world No7, whose star has risen by the day at these championships, was desperate to contain the growing tide of expectations heaped on her. Now she must amaze by herself. In a way, Murray’s exit on Wednesday lightens her burden, although she will try hard to expunge all such thoughts from her legendary process before her semi-final against Venus Williams on Thursday.
Sam Querrey’s mildly surprising victory against Murray in five painful sets robs the tournament of the possibility of seeing British players in the men’s and women’s semi-finals for the first time in the Open era. It was asking a lot of both of them.
In the past the greater responsibility to make the double possible would have been on Konta, given where she was coming from on the WTA Tour, but this time the men’s No1 player and defending champion was the weaker link, so hampered by his hip pain he could win only two games in the fourth and fifth sets against Querrey.
Can Konta console the nation? She certainly has shown enough form in three of her first five matches – and at several moments earlier in the season – to give Williams, the only past champion left in the tournament, cause to wonder.
The Eastbourne player has beaten her three times in their five meetings, so there is much mutual respect. In their last encounter, Williams won on the clay of Rome, but Konta gave her a good fight over three sets. This is an entirely different scenario.
Nevertheless, she has an unwavering support in Murray. “I hope she goes on to win the tournament,” he said. “She’s certainly got a fantastic chance. I saw quite a lot of the match [on Tuesday, when she beat the world No2, Simona Halep, in three exhilarating sets]. She played extremely well under a lot of pressure, at the end of the second set especially. If she keeps playing like that, there’s no reason why she can’t do it.”
While Konta has always believed she can win here – indeed rise to No1 in the world – she handles that pressure by almost denying the challenge exists. Every match for her is a series of moments to be handled, games compiled, sets won and opponents, finally, conquered. Everything is “in the moment”. Until it is finished, nothing is in the future. That is another country.
She explained some of that thinking when she described what it was like after defeating Halep. There was no elation, just a sensation of a passing moment in time. “Tennis is a funny thing. You’re playing a point one second, then the next it’s over, then the next you’re walking off court. Things happen very quickly in tennis. It was just one of those moments where I kind of was like: ‘Oh, OK, we’re finished. OK, I’m walking off the court.’ I kind of was in the moment of going where you’re meant to go, what you’re meant to do. But my brain just kept on catching up five minutes later.”
Konta has tried to relax that complex brain by cooking, reading and listening to music, particularly U2, whom she will go to see live after the tournament. “My favourite is Where the Streets Have No Name,” she said of Bono and the boys. “It just feels like a very emotionally epic song.”
She had been told U2 and Mick Jagger had been celebrating her exploits at Wimbledon on Twitter. Blushes followed. “I did see that and I did reply. And there was a massively fan-girly-thing moment. It was pretty intense at home. I may have shrieked and giggled and run around in circles for a couple of minutes. But I played it pretty cool after. When U2 tweets you, you know your life is pretty much made. I’m seeing them in Dublin.”
Konta will catch up with her parents when the job is done, she says – so there is no total loss of emotional control just yet. “My mum doesn’t really watch. She gets very nervous, so she is never in the stadium. She is always watching on TV or a screen somewhere,” she said. “My dad is actually quite, I don’t know … you will have to ask the people he is sitting next to what he is like. I think he is probably still trying to crack a joke. He is a champ.”
She famously reached for serenity in her life with her late mind coach, Juan Coto, and now works with another Spanish adviser in that field, Elena Sosa. “They are different people,” she says. “However, what’s been very beneficial is that she is aware of the work that I’ve done previously. She’s able to continue that but also add new things that will develop.”
Konta sometimes makes herself sound like a robot, yet she is a very emotional and warm individual, as susceptible to crashes as she is to major highs. So far, she has allowed herself the odd fist pump, raised her arms in victory and blessed Wimbledon with a smile of considerable charm. If she were to beat Williams and reach the final – or even win it – all of that control just might dissolve in one glorious burst of joyful tears.
