Britain’s Johanna Konta has revealed that she was shocked to see her face all over the newspapers during her run to the semifinals of Wimbledon, her home Grand Slam.
Konta, who became the first British woman since 1978 to reach the Wimbledon semis, was on a visit to a supermarket where she was buying groceries when she saw her photographs all over the newspapers.
“I walked in and photographs of my face were over the whole news-stand,” Konta said. “I literally froze. I felt so self-conscious and so like: ‘Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!’ I didn’t know where to look. I think I ended up standing behind a pillar until my boyfriend joined me. I was like: ‘Help me!’
“I didn’t hang around long enough to buy a copy. I don’t think I’d want to be looking at my face every morning, every day.”
“Since Wimbledon, I have had the experience of people recognising me more,” she said. “I’ve been more aware of the general little hushed conversations or the little nudges people give to each other to point me out, or the staring. I’ve noticed that.”
“I think part of the reason behind me coping better with the attention [at Wimbledon] was the experience and the maturity that I’ve gone through in the last couple of years,” she said. “I think if I hadn’t gone through Australia, if I hadn’t experienced Australia again this year, or even experienced my previous Wimbledons, it would have definitely affected me in a different way.”
She added: “Previously there had not necessarily been more pressure, but I had felt more stress. I guess it was about me finding my way on the tour, being the kind of player I want to be, and just being myself.
“I never really felt the pressure this year. I felt an immense amount of support and interest in my matches, in me being involved in the tournament. But I didn’t really perceive it as pressure.
“I saw it as interest, as something exciting. I felt people were with me on this journey at this tournament much more closely than at other events.”
