Australian Open: Johanna Konta claims Venus Williams victory for Britain

Sydney-born player reaffirms love for adopted home as win sparks Aussie envy

Britain’s Johanna Konta showed few nerves as she beat Venus Williams in straight sets (Getty Images)

Considering that four of the top eight Australian women are “imports” to European countries who switched nationalities, might the tennis authorities Down Under soon try to start reclaiming some of those players who slipped from their grasp?

Johanna Konta, who enjoyed the best win of her career here when she beat Venus Williams 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of the Australian Open, was born in Sydney (to Hungarian parents) and spent the first 13 years of her life there before moving to Britain.

The world No 47, who was granted a British passport four years ago, is now experiencing a taste of the sort of treatment Laura Robson has grown accustomed to receiving here.

Robson, who began her latest comeback following wrist surgery at a minor tournament in Florida this week, was born in Melbourne and was granted a British passport after her family settled in Britain when she was six.

While the locals here like to think of Robson as one of their own, there is also a sense of regret that such a talent escaped Australian clutches.

“Can we convince you to come back?” an Australian reporter asked Konta after the British No 1 had crowned her first appearance in the main draw of the year’s opening Grand Slam tournament with a victory over one of the sport’s all-time greats. “My home is Great Britain,” Konta replied with a smile. “It has been for a long time now, over a decade. That’s where my heart is.”

She added: “My sister still lives here, so obviously I still have a family connection here. Australia is a beautiful country to have once called home and to always come visit. It’s special to me in that way.”

Eastbourne has been Konta’s home for 10 years, but she also has strong Spanish connections. As a teenager she trained at the Sanchez Casal academy in Barcelona, her time there overlapping briefly with Andy Murray’s. Her current training base is at Gijon in northern Spain and she has two Spanish coaches, Esteban Carril and Jose-Manuel Garcia.

The member of her entourage who has attracted the most interest in recent times has been another Spaniard, Juan Coto, who is based in London. Coto, a mind coach, has helped to transform Konta from a player who struggled on occasions to cope with pressure into a model of mental strength.

Appearing for the first time in Rod Laver Arena, the main show court here, Konta showed few signs of nerves as she played controlled attacking tennis to race into a 6-4, 5-0 lead over Williams who, at the age of 35, returned to the world’s top 10 at the end of last season for the first time in five years.

When Williams won the next two games, Konta appeared to be wobbling, but the Briton, who enjoyed good support from the crowd, kept her nerve to see out a memorable victory. Williams, who faces a fine of up to $20,000 (£14,000) for failing to turn up at her post-match press conference, has yet to win a match this year.

“This was definitely the biggest stage I’ve won on as it was on Rod Laver,” Konta said afterwards. “In terms of a decorated tennis player and the biggest champion that I’ve ever played, she definitely is that. I’m very proud of the way I was able to stay very present and just keep going, whatever the scoreline.”

She added: “Venus is such a champion with so much experience and so much knowledge about the game. Even if she’s playing with one leg, you’ve got to really take care of things on your own, because she’s an incredible player. I have all the respect for her in the world.”

Konta, who climbed more than 100 places in the world rankings last year, has physical as well as mental strength. She copes particularly well with heat, as she showed last summer when outlasting Garbine Muguruza en route to the fourth round of the US Open in the longest women’s match in the tournament’s history (three hours and 23 minutes).

Konta puts her capacity to deal with such conditions down to her childhood years in Australia – “I’m very lucky that I got to spend a lot of my young years here, because I got obviously exposed to the heat” – but her fitness is also a result of her willingness to put in the training sessions over the winter.

“During my pre-season after day two I was just tired every single day,” she said. “It just didn’t matter what we were doing. Even if I had a day off I was so tired.

“It’s not nice and, trust me, there are tears, because when I get tired I usually cry. I think in week four of the off-season we were doing interval training on court and my tolerance was head height and my mood was about ceiling height. I had a moment, a bit of a breakdown, so my coach said, ‘OK, we’ll only do 15 seconds’. But I was like, ‘No! We keep it at 30 seconds. I’m not crying for you to make this easier. I just need to let this out’.

“But you learn to love it. One of my previous coaches used to talk about ‘getting comfortable with being uncomfortable’ and that’s very true.”

In the second round Konta will face the 21-year-old Chinese Saisai Zheng, who lost their only previous meeting in qualifying at the French Open three years ago.

Zheng, whose mother is a poet, said: “Konta is playing really well and if she can beat Venus that must mean something. It’s going to be a really tough match. I’ll have to fight a lot.”

Konta the conqueror: Biggest career wins

June 2015

Beat fourth seed Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-4 and 14th seed Garbine Muguruza 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 as she reached quarter-finals at Aegon International.

September 2015

Overcame ninth seed Muguruza 7-6, 6-7, 6-2 to reach third round at the US Open in longest ever women’s match at Flushing Meadows. Went on to beat 18th seed Andrea Petkovic before going out in last 16.

September 2015

Beat two-time Grand Slam winner Victoria Azarenka and world No 2 Simona Halep at Wuhan Open before losing to Venus Williams in the quarters.