World

Johanna Konta: Former British Wimbledon champion and world number 4 retired


Former British world number 4 Johanna Konta has announced her retirement from professional tennis.

Konta, 30, reached the semifinals of Wimbledon 2017 – the first British woman to achieve the feat in 39 years.

She also reached the quarterfinals at the 2016 Australian Open and the 2019 French Open, while her best results at the US Open were in the quarterfinals in 2019.

She made the announcement on social media, saying she was “grateful” for the career she’s had.

Born to Hungarian parents in Australia before moving to England at the age of 14, Konta became loyal in 2012 and became the most successful British female player of her generation.

In an impressive career, Konta has achieved a number of achievements that no other woman in the nation has achieved in more than 30 years.

Besides her Grand Slam performances and ranking among the best in the world, she has also won four titles on the WTA Tour and represented England at the Fed Cup.

“Thanks to my own resilience and thanks to the guidance of others, I was able to live my dream,” she posted. “I became what I wanted and said when I was young. I consider myself so lucky.”

Konta’s future was briefly unclear, having dropped to 113th in the world after struggling on form and fitness.

Since reaching the quarterfinals to win her third consecutive Grand Slam at the 2019 US Open, where she lost to Ukrainian fifth seed Elina Svitolina, Konta has won just one match in five majors.

Her last match was at the Cincinnati Open in August, when she lost to Czech Karolina Muchova in the first round.

Over the past few seasons, she has been dealing with tendonitis in her right knee, something she said in June that she will have to manage for the rest of her career.

Her career was further disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the tour was halted in early 2020 and she has doubts about traveling after it resumed in August, Konta was only able to play nine tournaments last season.

This year, Konta showed her best form as she won the Nottingham Open – leading to hopes she can have another deep run at Wimbledon in July.

Johanna Konta lifts Miami Open title in 2017
Johanna Konta has won four WTA Tour titles in her career, with the highest being in Miami in 2017.

But more bad luck came to her. She was kicked out of her home Grand Slam tournament ahead of the tournament because one of her teams tested positive for Covid, then contracted the virus herself and was disqualified from the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Since then, she has only played twice, in Montreal – where she beat third-seeded Svitolina – and Cincinnati.

She was replaced by Emma Raducanu as the British number one on her way to winning the US Open in September for the juniors, while Konta fell out of the world top 100 for the first time in the world. last month since 2015.

Konta rose from unknown to British star

2005: At the age of 14, Konta moved to England when her family settled in the town of Eastbourne, on the south coast.

2012: Switched allegiance to England as he finished outside the top 200 and made his Grand Slam debut at Wimbledon.

2015: Ranked 97 in the world and without a major Grand Slam win, it was a surprise when they reached the round of 16 US Open teams.

2016: Going further at the Australian Open, becoming the first British woman in 33 years to reach a major semi-final.

Won its first WTA championship in July and climbed into the world top 10 in October, featuring a British presence for the first time since Jo Durie in 1984.

2017: Started the season by winning her second WTA title – without dropping a set – in Sydney.

Claim the biggest title of her career as she becomes the first British woman to win the Miami Open.

Becoming the first British woman to reach the semifinals of Wimbledon since 1978, taking her to fourth place in the world rankings.

2018: Hired Maria Sharapova’s former coach Michael Joyce at the start of the season, but the partnership didn’t go well as she slipped out of the world’s top 20.

Showing signs of stress when she said “the media didn’t make it easy” for her at the French Open in May and got into an argument with the referee during the Nottingham Open final in June.

Losing in the second round at Wimbledon and after losing in the first round at the US Open, fell outside the top 40 in the world.

2019: Helped Great Britain end a 26-year wait for promotion to the Fed Cup in April, winning both of her singles matches in a play-off win over Kazakhstan.

Joined the European clay court ranked 45th in the world, but reached the finals of the Morocco Open and the Italian Open under newly appointed coach Dimitri Zavialoff.

Made it to the semi-finals of the French Open, having never won a main draw at Roland Garros before. But stress gets better with her in a consecutive defeat against Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova.

Another good run at Wimbledon ended in a quarter-final defeat to the underrated Barbora Strycova, leading to disappointment at “disrespect and patronage” question from a reporter.

In 2020: Started the year off with three straight losses in Brisbane, Melbourne and St Petersburg, but reached the semi-finals of Monterrey in the last event before the coronavirus pandemic halted the WTA Tour.

When the season resumed in August, she reached the semifinals of Cincinnati but lost in the second round of the US Open and earned just two more wins that year.

In 2021: Won just three games in the first six months of the season – knocked out in the first round at the Australian Open and French Open – then won the Nottingham title in June.

Withdrawn from Wimbledon and the Olympics in the summer before announcing his retirement.

Than to follow.

Read banners around BBC radio - BlueFooter - Blue





Source link

news7g

News7g: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button