ICE queen Jo Konta finally melted in the furnace of Rod Laver Arena today – but said it was the “best experience of my life”.
The British golden girl’s glory bid ended with a straight sets quarter-final defeat to superstar Serena Williams.
Super-cool Konta hadn’t dropped a set in her four previous rounds here, or in five matches before that since the turn of the year.
Keep up to date with ALL the tennis news, gossip, plus results
But playing a 22-time Grand Slam winner is another level altogether. And as the sun beat down relentlessly on Melbourne Park’s famous centre court, Williams proved just too hot for the ninth seed to handle.
An emotional Konta said: “That was one of the best experiences of my life.
“There’s so many things I can learn from that, so many things I can look to improve on, also acknowledge some things that I did well.
“Credit to her, she played an almost perfect first set. I felt she really did incredibly well. I mean, yeah, she just showed and shows why she is who she is.
“She’s able to really hit her spots incredibly well. So the way she’s able to open up the court, it really makes the court very big. And also she obviously has tremendous power, force, and speed. Yeah, I think she’s covered all bases.
“I definitely would have liked to have served better today. I don’t think I was able to fully maximise things on my end there, but I was quite happy that I didn’t get pushed back too far physically.
“Hopefully I’ll get the chance to play her again and do better.”Williams was full of praise for Konta after her 6-2 6-3 win in an hour and a quarter, saying: “I’m just pleased to get past someone as good as Jo.
“She’s been playing so well, cleaning up her matches so well – and she’s a future champion here for sure.
“I missed a lot of serves, got frustrated with myself. But eventually I told myself, stop being a baby, just enjoy it.”
Fair play to Konta, she was fearless from the off here and with the American legend clearly unhappy with her own serve the legions of British fans in the ever-swelling early-afternoon crowd sensed something special might be in the air.
It’s one thing sensing it, though, and another thing doing it. In this case, that meant Konta seizing every opening that came her way – because if not, she was surely going to be punished.
Proof? At 1-1 in the opening set, she had break point only for Williams to cling on – then come out of her seat after the changeover and turn over the Konta serve.
Small margins, but enough to tip the balance of power. Konta was chasing the match now and serving to stay in it at 2-5 down she was undone by a pair of ferocious forehand groundstrokes that sealed her fate.
It was the first time in ten matches that she’d dropped a set…and now she’d have to win two on the bounce against possibly the greatest player ever in the women’s game if she was to stay in the tournament.
This was the point where lesser players would have crumbled. Many’s the contender whose dreams have run away like water rushing over stones as someone with the presence of Williams stared them down from across the net.
Related stories
But the thing about Konta is that she’s never up nor down, never over-exciting when she’s winning nor too deflated when she’s losing. So out she came for that second set, still as focussed, still going through her routines, still going for her shots as bravely as ever.
Her reward came at 1-1, when her unflinching desire to keep attacking three times forced the US legend into mistakes that handed the Brit a break.
Now, if only she could consolidate on her next couple of service games, we really were in a contest.
If only. Words that come back to haunt everyone who nearly makes it in life.
Konta did hold for 3-1. But sadly, that was to be the last time she got on the board as Williams went through the gears to win five straight games and put herself in her 34th semi-final of a major.
It had been a toughing schooling for Konta, a player on her way to the top but still with a lot to learn.
Hopefully, she’ll come back all the stronger for it.
Leave a comment