It is only a few days since Johanna Konta was sobbing into the turf of Eastbourne, her head throbbing wildly from a whiplashed tumble and her prospects of playing at Wimbledon in the call of doctors rightly concerned about the state of her thoracic spinal cord. It was a chilling image. Cue the smiling arrival of Britain’s No1 hope in the women’s draw at Wimbledon on Sunday, as the sixth seed, and all seems well with her world. No, she says, there was never any doubt she would play – although there was no convincing evidence from her camp to that effect in the worrying day or so after she fell on her way to defeating the world No1, Angelique Kerber, in the quarter-finals of the Aegon
Adidas Mikko Rantanen Womens Jersey tournament in her home town. Johanna Konta: ‘If I lose a tennis match, so what? My health is everything’ Read more Maybe the uncertainty resided in the little information from her camp. Konta is an intensely private person and she guards her professional life with equal rigour. So, what is now known is she will be on court on Monday against Hsieh Su?wei, the Taiwanese long-shot who put her out of the first round of the French Open in three sets. “The probability of playing each other first round in a slam in a row? That’s actually pretty cool,” Konta said. “She’s a Wimbledon champion in doubles here on the grass so she definitely can play on this surface. Actually the first time I played her I lost to her on the grass. “I’m going into the match knowing that she will be playing very comfortably
http://www.authenticcoloradoavalanche.com/authentic-nathan-mackinnon-jersey on the surface. She will definitely look to make things difficult for me. I’d like to think that I’m also better prepared.” Yet a few days ago she was so concerned about her health that she pulled out of her semi-final against the eventual Eastbourne winner, Karolina Pliskova. She said of her spine: “It’s much better. It was most important to just make sure that I was well enough through the chain, and my body. Definitely it was medically the right decision to not continue playing in Eastbourne, to give my body that chance to recover. It was a bit of a traumatic fall. Advertisement “I’m recovering
http://www.authenticfloridapanthers.com/authentic-reto-berra-jersey really well. I’m taking it a day at a time. I practised today. I felt good. I’m definitely looking forward to playing my first round. Like Andy [Murray] I’d like to think that I’m fit enough to play seven matches. But I’m going to be taking it one at a time.” Heather Watson, meanwhile, is on an upward curve from an altogether lower base of 126th in the world but buzzing after reaching the final in Surbiton and giving Caroline Wozniacki a good argument in the Eastbourne semi?finals. “I look forward to Wimbledon every year and I am just as excited to be back, grateful for the wild card, disappointed that I needed one but thankful that I have been given the opportunity,” she said. In the first round Watson plays the Belgian Maryna Zanevska, ranked seven places above her, which, in the modern women’s game, is a statistical millimetre. “It does not matter who I am playing against right now,” Watson said. “I just want to get through rounds and into the later stages of tournaments. That’s what I have been lacking the last year. And I was really pleased to get to the final of Surbiton. Even though it was a 100,000 [dollar tournament] I was proud of myself. I was really proud of myself – and I’m just really glad to be winning matches in a row here in this
Adidas Roberto Luongo Youth Jersey tournament as well.” The Recap: sign up for the best of the Guardian's sport coverage Read more It is encouraging to see Watson moving and hitting with the sort of joy and freedom of which she is capable when unencumbered by injury or self-doubt and she is in that zone right now, playing near to the level she reached when she almost pulled off the unthinkable against Serena Williams here in 2015. Had she won that match, her career and her life would have been altered beyond imagining and she expended some energy trying to play down its significance. It is the way of professional athletes and a quality she shares with Konta. Watson has the advantage over Konta, though, of reduced expectations. If she can come from outside the top 100 and make a decent run at Wimbledon, it will do wonders for her self-confidence. She has to trust her game, though, to ride out the dips and take advantage of the soaring highs
