Johanna Konta

Johanna Konta is a British tennis player who made a name for herself by reaching multiple Grand Slam semifinals in the last 2010s.

Konta's game is well-suited to quick courts, and she has done very well on grass in particular. She has been the best British player on the women's tour in the last few years, and continues to carry the hopes of the country at all the big tournaments - especially Wimbledon.

Best finish at each of the four Grand Slams:

Australian Open: Semifinalist (2016)

French Open: 1st Round (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018)

Wimbledon: Semifinalist (2017)

US Open: 4th Round (2015, 2016)

Highest Ranking: No. 4

Style of play

Konta is an attacking player who looks to hit big from the baseline and also approach the net to finish points. She hits her forehand with a considerable amount of topspin while her backhand is relatively flatter.

Konta uses her serve to gain the upper hand in court positioning. She doesn't rely on a lot of variation to win points, but does bring out the backhand slice when forced to defend off that wing.

Strengths and weaknesses

Konta's serve is an important weapon in her arsenal; the rest of her game flows from that shot. While her second serve can sometimes be shaky, her first serve is quick and accurate and can win her a lot of free points.

The Brit has powerful groundstrokes, which she uses to move players all over the court. She takes the ball early on both wings and hits them with depth and pace, often forcing her opponents to defend from behind the baseline.

Konta is not the greatest net player, and sometimes fails to put away easy volleys. Movement is also not her strong suit, which perhaps explains her lack of success on clay and other slow courts.

Konta has occasionally been criticized for being too one-dimensional with her tactics, and lacking alternative plans when things don't go her way. Her groundstrokes have an almost robotic consistency to them, which is great for overpowering smaller opponents but not so helpful when pitted against more powerful players.

Personal life

Konta was born in Sydney, Australia, and her parents Gabor and Gabriella are both of Hungarian origin. The entire family moved to Eastbourne in the year 2005, and they've been living there ever since.

Konta took up tennis at the age of eight, and trained at the Sanchez Casal Academy in Barcelona as a teenager. Konta's idol growing up was Steffi Graf, although her game is not modeled on the German's.

She got British citizenship in 2012, after which she started representing Great Britain in tennis tournaments. Konta says that representing Britain at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil is among her best tennis memories of all time.

Now one of the very few female players keeping her country's hopes alive, Konta is a British media darling who faces a lot of scrutiny at every big tournament. It is commendable, then, that she has learned how to block out all the pressure and continue to perform well on the tour.

Social media presence:

Johanna Konta Instagram: @johannakonta

Johanna Konta Twitter: @JohannaKonta