While looking at the top 10 WTA, it won`t take long to notice that on that list there is a particular name popping out. Johanna Konta currently the British no. 1 in women`s singles is rather an uncommon player with a strange trajectory. She had a late rise to fame, but over the past 2 seasons or so, her progress is quite impressive. Last year, she broke the top 10 barriers and now the sky is the limit.
A frisky personality while on the Tennis court, Johanna Konta, despite her late breakthrough is a danger for every other top player.
Konta feels great in Melbourne
When it comes to tangible success on the WTA Tour, she is still far in terms of achievements, but only due to her late rise. So far, she can brag about with only 2 WTA singles titles having her latest success in Sydney at the end of a compelling display of tennis over Radwanska, the world no. 3. Her maiden WTA title was captured last summer in Stanford having Konta edging Venus Williams in 3 sets.
When talking about Grand Slams, for the British player is still left a lot of work to be done in order to achieve some greatness. Still, at the Australian Open, she had a breakthrough last season by reaching the semis. Eventually, she lost to Angelique Kerber who further ousted Serena Williams to capture her maiden Grand Slam.
In the other Grand Slams, except for the US Open where she reached the 4th round twice in a row (2015, 2016), there were no notable results having early-exists each time.
At the Australian Open 2017, things look better as she already made it to the 4th round. Her latest victim was a dangerous opponent, namely Caroline Wozniacki, former world no.
1 now ranked 20th in the world. For a place in the quarterfinals, Konta will have to fight against Ekaterina Makarova from Russia.
Steady progress and game maturity
While her improvements are visible, her progress has been quite slow. But that might turn out to be a winning recipe as now she puts in a solid game each time she competes.
People are used seeing youngsters making an early rise to fame which might be exciting but not always a long-term success. It`s enough to analyze how Eugenie Bouchard evolved. Back in 2014, she was ranked 5th in the world playing semis at the Australian Open, the French Open and being a runner-up in Wimbledon. Now she is floating somewhere around the 40th place in the ranking having poor results over the last season or so.
On the other side, Johanna Konta seems a lot more like Kerber with a slow but constant to the very top.