Torchbearer: Why Jo Konta could be Britain’s Tennis hero in 2019
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England’s footballerswon the nation’s hearts at the World Cup last year, but this summer we arelooking for someone or something to steal the headlines and make us believeagain.
There’s likely to be no Andy Murray around this summer, so stepforward Johanna Konta.
The Brit first burst into the mainstream after her epic runto the Australian Open semi-finals in 2016 and three years on she finally looksback to her best.
The 28-year-old has been on a roll at Roland Garros so far,so we take a look at why we could all be suffering from #KontaFever this summer.
In form
After her last four showing in Australia, Konta followed upwith a win at the Miami Open and semi-final appearance at Wimbledon in 2017.
She stormed to fourth seed in the WTA rankings as the worldbegan to take note.
But a loss of form in 2018 saw her back to square one. Fastforward to the here and now and it’s all change again.
Konta has only dropped one set on her way to the French Openquarter finals, and has breezed past her last two opponents Viktoria Kuzmovaand Donna Vekic.
She’s gone from 33s pre-tournament into 8/1 to win the whole thing – and Konta herself admitted everyone in the women’s game is beatable right now.
The topsy turvy nature of the WTA tour right now has rearedits head in Paris too.
Big upsets
The unpredictability that could yet reap rich rewards forKonta, has been on show all tournament.
Seven of the top 10 seeds have already been eliminated,including world number one Naomi Osaka, second seed Karolina Pliskova and23-time Grand Slam champ Serena Williams.
This has thrown the women’s draw wide open. Konta may not begetting the big build up she was in 2017 but flying under the radar could bekey.
Defending champions Simona Halep is still knocking about andso is impressive American Sloane Stephens.
But Konta has beaten Halep in a Grand Slam before – so anythingis possible.
Finally her time?
Konta now faces her biggest test of the fortnight so far against former US Open champ Sloane Stephens.
It will be tough with Stephens the 8/11 favourite to win the match. But with Konta at Evens to take the first set – her 11/10 odds for the match may be worth a look.
Stephens reached the final of this tournament last year buthas only made one quarter-final since.
There was an aura of invincibility and collective belief aroundthe England World Cup squad in 2018, something we may need to see again if Kontais to become the hero of the summer in 2019.
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