Jo Konta makes injury admission on eve of Wimbledon as Brit confirmed as SW19 seed

When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Johanna Konta on Wednesday night revealed that she may have to live with her knee problems for the rest of her career – and admitted that she did not act quickly enough when they first emerged.

The British No 1 won the Nottingham Open 10 days ago to register the fourth title of her career, but then explained that she would be resting her knees to give herself her best chance at Wimbledon.

Konta would normally have played at Birmingham and Eastbourne this week as a warm-up for Wimbledon but pulled out of both tournaments.

And the 30-year-old admitted that when the problems first cropped up she did not take them seriously enough.

Konta has been dogged with knee problems since the start of 2019, though she reached the semi-final of the French Open and the quarter finals at Wimbledon and the US Open that year.

She has struggled to hit those heights since, with the pandemic wreaking havoc with sport.

But Konta said: “Will it be part of the rest of my career? Possibly.

“I’m going to be managing this for quite some time. Hopefully I’ll kick it before I stop playing.

“I wasn’t pain free for the best part of two and a half years. But I do have longer stretches of being pain free, so there are positives.”

Konta, now ranked 30th in the world but the 28th Wimbledon women’s seed, said: “At the beginning I didn’t acknowledge there was something going on.

“It took too long to address it properly – and by that time it was a significant thing.

“Tendon issues don’t follow any specific blueprint on rest, recovery, rehabilitation – it’s basically just management.

“Sometimes it is sore when I play matches, sometimes it isn’t. It depends where it is, how acute it is at the time.

“I don’t look to expend any energy worrying about it. I know I’m doing the work.”

Konta is one of three British singles seeds at Wimbledon this year alongside Dan Evans and Cameron Norrie at the All England Club.

MORE TENNIS NEWS…
Nadal hurts Federer’s hopes of winning Wimbledon despite withdrawal
Roger Federer rivals warned key benefit will return at Wimbledon
Dominic Thiem admits he’s a Wimbledon doubt after injury

The last British player still standing at Eastbourne, Liam Broady, meanwhile has seen his hopes crushed by Australian No 2 seed Alex De Minaur, who won 6-3, 6-4.

In the women’s draw, whizzkid Coco Gauff, the youngest player to qualify for the main draw at Wimbledon in 2019 and reached the last 16 when she was just 15, saw her preparations for this year hit a hitch as she went down 6-4, 5-7, 2-6 to Latvian Anastasija Sevastova.

Source: Read Full Article