London: After landing the biggest prize of her career in Miami on Saturday, Johanna Konta’s next goals are a mixture of the very grand and the very practical.
In the former category, we can place her desire to climb to No. 1 in the world: an aspiration that looks like anything but a pipe dream now that her 2017 points tally is second only to that of Karolina Pliskova.
Meanwhile, the pounds 937,000 (Dh3.4 million) cheque has been earmarked as payback for those closest to her: father Gabor (a hotel manager) and mother Gabriella (a dentist), who shuttled the whole family around the world during her teenage years in search of the best training environment.
“I would love to get my parents a house somewhere or a place in the country,” said Konta in the afterglow of the Miami Open title, the most significant trophy to be claimed by a British woman since Virginia Wade won Wimbledon.
“That’s next on the saving-for list.” Family is always the primary concern for Konta.
At the end of her 6-4, 6-3 dismantling of Caroline Wozniacki the first people she spoke to were her mother and father at their apartment in Eastbourne, where they had been following events on the TV.
“They were very happy,” she smiled.
“But watching is nerve-racking, so they were saying, ‘We’re going for a walk now, otherwise we’re going to have a heart attack.’”
There were moments of angst for Konta (right) defending her serve early on. Once she had moved ahead in the second set, though, she looked more secure. The ‘clean winners’ tally, which she won by 33 to eight, shows how she dictated play. How much further can this late-blooming champion climb? Two years ago she was ranked around the 150-mark, which did not even earn her a qualifying spot here.
Now she stands alongside Pliskova and Angelique Kerber as one of those most likely to worry Serena Williams.
“I’ve always wanted to become a grand slam champion and to be the best in the world,” she said.
“Without that, the victories aren’t as sweet or the defeats as motivating.”
Konta now moves on to this week’s event in Charleston. In her first clay-court outing of the year she will start as second seed behind Madison Keys.
She rejects the idea that the switch of surface will sap her momentum, although she has enjoyed negligible success in WTA clay-court events.
“Most of my Challenger wins were on clay so I don’t necessarily think it’s a surface that I’m uncomfortable on. It’s more that I’m playing higher-quality players, so it’s just another learning curve, working out how to adapt.”
By Simon Briggs, The Telegraph Group Ltd, London 2017
