Johanna Konta

Johanna Konta was born in Sydney, Australia, on 17 May 1991, the daughter of Hungarian parents Gábor, a hotel manager, and Gabriella, a dentist. Her parents had emigrated separately from Hungary and met in Australia. One of Konta's grandfathers, Tamás Kertész (1929–1989), played football for Ferencvárosi TC; he won two international caps for Hungary in the 1950s and later coached the Ghana national team. Konta has a half sister, Eva Mumford, from her father's previous marriage. She is married to Australian Rules Footballer Shane Mumford.

Konta initially trained at the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Barcelona, before her parents decided to settle in Britain in 2005, and at the Roddick Lavalle Academy in Texas. In January 2011, she started training at the Weybridge Tennis Academy in England under the guidance of coach Justin Sherring. She trained at the National Tennis Academy in Roehampton with LTA-supplied coaches Louis Cayer and, from mid-2012, Julien Picot. In December 2012, the Lawn Tennis Association announced that Konta was one of 21 players set to receive the LTA's funding next season, which is supported through Team Aegon.

Konta won her first ITF singles title at a $10k tournament in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina shortly before her 17th birthday in May 2008. She commented that the best was yet to come.

Konta achieved a significant breakthrough at a $25k tournament in Sutton, England, in February 2009. Entering as a wild card, she defeated the top seed, Corinna Dentoni, who was ranked 153 at the time, and two other top 250 players to reach the final where she lost in three sets to Katie O'Brien. Konta backed this performance up by winning a $25k tournament in June at the W.O.W. Challenger in Waterloo, Ontario, over Heidi El Tabakh.

In April 2011, she lost in three sets in the qualifying draw of Charleston to Sania Mirza. She also fell in qualifying at Fes and Strasbourg. Konta reached the main draw of a WTA Tour event for her first time when she qualified at Copenhagen in June, falling in the first round to fourth seed Lucie Šafářová, who was ranked 38 at the time, in a match that lasted over two and half hours.

Konta became a British citizen in May 2012 and concurrently switched her sporting allegiance from Australia to Britain. When her nationality became the subject of debate at the 2016 Australian Open after she was labelled a plastic Brit, Konta said it was "a compliment for you guys to be interested in my Australian roots", but that she was "very pleased to be representing Great Britain ... where I grew up essentially". Konta has three passports – British, Australian and Hungarian.

Konta began 2014 at the Shenzhen Open, losing to 15-year-old wildcard Xu Shilin in the first qualifying round. Together with her Austrian partner Patricia Mayr-Achleitner, she reached the semi-finals in doubles, losing to the Ukrainian sisters Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok in straight sets. The following week, seeded third in Australian Open qualifying, Konta won her first match against Grace Min, but lost for the second year in succession in the second qualifying round, in straight sets to Ukrainian Olga Savchuk.

At the start of 2014, she split from Picot for personal reasons. In August 2014, when the LTA decided to close the National Tennis Centre as a base for elite players, Konta began working with Spanish coach Esteban Carril. At the end of 2014, Konta began receiving help from mental coach Juan Coto, a friend of Carril's based in London. A dramatic cut in her LTA funding for 2015 encouraged Konta to move her training base to Gijon in northern Spain, where Esteban Carril and Jose-Manuel Garcia oversaw an increasingly rapid rise up the rankings. Supporters of the LTA's austerity drive argued this was a benefit of their tough love policy, though Konta disagreed that that was the case. After her mental coach Coto died suddenly in November 2016, Konta maintained that she would continue to benefit from his influence: "He’s still very much a part of everything that I do, everything that I will continue to do in this sport and this career. He has gifted me with an incredible amount of tools and habits".

Konta entered the grass-court season as world No. 18 as her ranking climbed to a new high despite her opening-round loss at Roland Garros. After early losses at the Nottingham Open and the Aegon Classic in Birmingham, Konta reached the semifinal in Eastbourne, the site of her breakout performance in 2015. Her run included a victory over two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová in the third round, but was ended in the last four by Karolína Plíšková.

Konta's playing style is focused on offensive baseline play, with fast, flat ground strokes. Konta is known for creating sharp angles, being able to hit winners from any position on the court. According to WTA match stats in 2016, she was fourth in ace counts, won 62% of her service points, 74.8% of service games and won most of the second serve points at 52.7%. She prefers to attack from the baseline, rather than to come to the net to volley. Konta has been criticized by former pro players for a lack of mental toughness and a lack of variety or a "plan B" in tough match situations, but after hiring Dimitri Zavialoff as her coach, she has utilised more drop shots and has played more at the net. Grass is her favourite surface, but the majority of her success has come on hard courts.

Konta split with Carril and Garcia in December 2016. Prior to the 2017 season, Konta recruited Belgian Wim Fissette to be her main coach. She also appointed Andrew Fitzpatrick as her hitting partner, and as a deputy coach when Fissette is absent. Konta and Fissette mutually ended this partnership in October 2017 after a poor run in the Asian tournaments. Konta retained the rest of her team and said she would spend the off-season looking for a new coach. On 6 December 2017, Konta announced she was hiring Michael Joyce for the 2018 season. On 10 October 2018, Konta announced that she had split with Joyce. She immediately commenced a trial period with Dimitri Zavialoff, a former coach of Stanislas Wawrinka, hiring him on a permanent basis 3 weeks later.

Konta's clothing sponsor was Asics until 2019, when she switched to Ellesse. Her racquet sponsor is Babolat. She endorses the Babolat Pure Aero range of racquets. In 2017, she became the first UK ambassador of Nature Valley cereal bars as part of their British Tennis partnership. In 2019 British accessories brand Radley named Konta as its second celebrity brand ambassador, as the face of its new Radley Spirit campaign. In addition to fronting the Radley Spirit campaign ahead of Wimbledon, Konta will also be curating a collection of her favourite pieces from the spring/summer 2019 collection, the Johanna Konta collection.

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