Mail Online

Stress and pain was too much for me to handle, admits Konta

By MIKE DICKSON Tennis Correspondent

JO KONTA last night admitted she had finally run out of energy to deal with the ‘stress and pain’ that comes with sustaining a career at the highest level of world tennis. The one-time world No 4 confirmed she was bringing the curtain down on a career that brought three Grand Slam semi-finals and four WTA Tour titles.

Instead her focus is on marrying long-time partner Jackson Wade this month, leaving behind the only life she has known since her teenage years. ‘You’re putting yourself in that position where you’re welcoming pain, you’re welcoming pressure and stress,’ she said of her career. ‘It’s a pleasure to do that when you feel like you have the energy and are able to play at your best. I would love to still play on the biggest stages in the world, it’s just that to be able to do that I don’t have the energy anymore.’

Konta (right) put her retirement at 30 down to a variety of factors, and not to the knee issues she has managed since the pandemic. It’s not entirely tied up with her marriage either. ‘I am getting married. I definitely would love to have a family. I wouldn’t say this was specifically relating to me wanting to have a family immediately. It was more to do with just how I was feeling.’ Describing herself as ‘grateful’ for the years on tour, she could rightly point to the fact she exceeded expectations. ‘I’m maybe a bit of a poster child of someone who carved out a career for themselves, when kind of all evidence pointed that it was not going to happen,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I will be looking back on any one match with any sort of kind of feelings other than joy for the fact that I’ve actually had a wonderful career.’ Describing Konta as a homegrown would have been a stretch as she arrived in the UK aged 14 from Australia. Until Emma Raducanu came along, however, she was Britain’s best player since Jo Durie.

If there is one moment that might keep her up in the early hours — she says not — it will be the set point she had in the opener of the 2019 French Open semi-final. In command against young Czech Marketa Vondrousova, she missed the kind of drive volley that would normally have been tucked away for fun.

Her opponent revived and an unlikely shot at glory on the clay evaporated. Her quarter-final demolition of Sloane Stephens that year at Roland Garros was more memorable, as was her 2017 Wimbledon quarter-final against Simona Halep, which excited thoughts of a British winner, before her return of serve was picked apart by Venus Williams in the semis.

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2021-12-02T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-02T08:00:00.0000000Z

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