Johanna Konta

Johanna Konta (born 17 May 1991) is a British-Australian former professional tennis player. Konta won four singles titles on the WTA Tour, along with eleven titles in singles and four in doubles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She was British No. 1 and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 on 17 July 2017. She reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the French Open.

Born to Hungarian parents in Sydney, Australia, Konta moved to England when she was 14. She has Hungarian, Australian and British citizenship. She switched her sporting allegiance from Australia to Great Britain after she became a British citizen in May 2012.

Konta achieved a steep rise in her ranking by the WTA from the spring of 2015 to late 2016, climbing from 150th to inside the world's top 10, becoming the first Briton to be ranked amongst the WTA's top ten since Jo Durie was ranked fifth over 30 years prior. This period included her best major result up to that time, the semifinals of the 2016 Australian Open, a quarterfinal appearance at the Rio Summer Olympics and her maiden WTA Tour title in Stanford. In 2017, she won the Miami Open and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon. Konta had another successful season in 2019, reaching the semifinals at the French Open and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the US Open. Konta retired on 1 December 2021, after struggling with a chronic injury to her right knee, which led to her ranking dropping outside the top 100.

Personal life

Johanna Konta was born in Sydney, Australia, to Hungarian parents: Gábor, a hotel manager, and Gabriella, a dentist. Her parents had emigrated separately from Hungary and met in Australia. One of Konta's grandfathers, Tamás Kertész (1929–1989), played football for Ferencvárosi TC; he won two international caps for Hungary in the 1950s and later coached the Ghana national team. Konta has a half sister, Eva Mumford, from her father's previous marriage. Her sister is married to former Australian rules football player Shane Mumford.

Konta's childhood was spent in Collaroy on Sydney's Northern Beaches, where she was introduced to tennis at an after-school programme at the age of eight. When she was 14, she attended the Sánchez-Casal Tennis Academy in Barcelona for 15 months, during which time her parents settled in Eastbourne, England.

Konta became a British citizen in May 2012 and concurrently switched her sporting allegiance from Australia to Great Britain. When her nationality became the subject of debate at the 2016 Australian Open after she was labelled a Plastic Brit, Konta said it was "a compliment for you guys to be interested in my Australian roots", but that she was "very pleased to be representing Great Britain ... where I grew up essentially". Konta has three passports – British, Australian and Hungarian.

Konta lives in East Sussex, where her applications to build a home in the protected Ashdown Forest have proved controversial.

Two weeks after her retirement from professional tennis, Konta announced on Twitter that she had married her long-term boyfriend Jackson Wade. The wedding took place on 11 December 2021, and on 12 September 2022, she announced the birth of her daughter on her social accounts.

Career

2008: First ITF Circuit title

Konta won her first ITF singles title at a $10k tournament in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina shortly before her 17th birthday in May 2008.

2009: First 25k title

Konta achieved a significant breakthrough at a 25k tournament in Sutton, England, in February 2009. Entering as a wildcard, she defeated the top seed, Corinna Dentoni, who was ranked 153 at the time, and two other top 250 players to reach the final where she lost in three sets to Katie O'Brien. Konta backed this performance up by winning the 25k Waterloo Challenger in Ontario in June, over Heidi El Tabakh.

Konta then went through a difficult time in the second half of the year, losing her first match in eight of the nine tournaments entered, six of these losses going to three sets. However, with the help of the earlier results, she rose from 668 to 360 in the WTA rankings during the year.

2010: Maiden 50k title

Konta regained some form at the start of 2010. In May, she reached the quarterfinal of the 50k tournament at Indian Harbour Beach, Florida. The following week, she took the title on the green clay courts of Raleigh, North Carolina, another 50k tournament, where, the day before her 19th birthday, she defeated Lindsay Lee-Waters in the final.

Highlights later in the year included another 50k quarterfinal appearance, two semifinal appearances in 25k tournaments and her second ITF Circuit singles title of the year at a 10k event in Westende, Belgium, where, in the final, she defeated Nicky Van Dyck for the loss of just one game. Konta also played her first WTA Tour event when she entered the qualifying for Copenhagen winning a match, before exiting the event.

2011: Drop in ranking

In April 2011, she lost in three sets in the qualifying draw of Charleston to Sania Mirza. She also fell in qualifying at Fes and Strasbourg. She reached the main draw of a WTA Tour event for the first time when she qualified at Copenhagen in June, falling in the first round to fourth seed Lucie Šafářová, who was ranked 38 at the time, in a match that lasted over two and a half hours.

Konta won her fifth ITF singles title at the GB Pro-Series event in Woking in July. In the final against Laura Robson, Konta was a set up when her opponent retired.

After a patchy couple of months interrupted by injury, Konta got back to her winning ways in Madrid, beating Lucy Brown in the final. However, her year ended during a second meeting with Robson in the first round at Barnstaple in October, with Konta having to retire this time. She slipped from 248 to 305 in the world rankings over the course of the season, and showed an improvement of only 55 places over the previous two years.

2012: First match wins in WTA Tour and major events

Konta achieved some welcome results in the first half of 2012, including a 25k title at Rancho Mirage in February. She then qualified for the WTA Tour event in Copenhagen for the second successive year, recording her first-match win in a full tour main draw over seventh seed Ksenia Pervak (then ranked 38) in the opening round, before losing to Petra Martić at the next stage. By the end of April, Konta had risen nearly 100 places to No. 211 in the rankings.

Having been granted British citizenship in May, Konta received a main-draw wildcard to Wimbledon; she faced 28th seed Christina McHale in the opening round, being beaten 10–8 in the deciding set.

A $50k final appearance at Lexington in July helped to maintain momentum, and the following month Konta qualified for the US Open, bridging a gap of almost 150 places in the rankings to upset world No. 59, Tímea Babos, in the first round, saving ten set points in the second set as she recorded her first career win at major-level. In the second round, Konta let a 5–2 final set lead slip against Olga Govortsova and lost. This run propelled her into the world's top 150 for the first time in her career, slipping a few places to end the year with a ranking of 153.

2013: First 100k title

At the Australian Open, Konta failed to build on her form from the US Open, losing in the second qualifying round to Zhou Yimiao of China, in three sets.

In February, Konta made her Fed Cup debut for Great Britain in Europe/Africa Zone Group 1 Pool B. Konta and Laura Robson won their doubles match as Britain opened with a whitewash against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Konta was then rested as Britain beat Portugal, before teaming up again with Robson in a losing doubles effort against Hungary, though Britain ultimately won this tie 2–1.

In April, Konta played in the Fed Cup World Group II play-off against Argentina. Konta was initially nominated to represent Britain in two of the singles rubbers. However, after losing her opening match against Paula Ormaechea, Great Britain captain Judy Murray decided that Elena Baltacha would replace Konta in the Sunday reverse singles.

Konta's next tournament was the Portugal Open in Oeiras, where she beat top-100 player Yulia Putintseva in the first qualifying round but was then forced to retire in the second qualifying round against Stéphanie Foretz Gacon. Konta also reached the second qualifying round at the French Open, losing to Galina Voskoboeva in three sets.

In June, Konta entered the Nottingham Trophy, a 75k tournament, reaching the semifinals after victories over An-Sophie Mestach, fifth seed Misaki Doi and Alison Riske. In the semifinals, Konta lost a tough battle against third seed Karolína Plíšková, going down in three sets. Following the event, she was handed a wildcard for the Birmingham Classic. In the first round, Konta defeated qualifier Kurumi Nara to set up a meeting with French player Kristina Mladenovic, the 12th seed at the tournament, who beat her in straight sets.

Konta also received a wildcard for Wimbledon, where she was drawn against 16th seed Jelena Janković in the first round. She lost in straight sets against the Serbian former world-number-one.