Johanna Konta has announced her retirement from tennis at the age of 30 in a statement published on her social media accounts on Wednesday morning.
Konta, who reached the semi-finals at three different Grand Slam tournaments, said her ‘playing career had come to an end’ in a statement which was titled ‘Grateful.’ A word she said she used the most during her professional career. The revelation comes after recent speculation about the British player’s future in the sport with some saying she will not be playing at the Australian Open. Konta hadn’t played a match on the WTA Tour since August due to a knee injury. An issue which has been bothering her in recent years.
“Grateful: This is the word that I’ve probably used the most during my career, and is the word that I feel explains it best at the end,” Konta wrote.
“My playing career has come to an end, and I am so incredibly grateful for the career that it turned out to be. All the evidence pointed towards me not ‘making’ it in this profession. However my luck materialised in the people that came into my life and impacted my existence in ways that transcended tennis. I am so incredibly grateful for these people. You know who you are.
“Through my own resilience and through the guidance of others, I got to live my dreams. I got to become what I wanted and said as a child. How incredibly fortunate I count myself to be. How grateful I am.”
Born in Sydney, Australia to Hungarian parents, Konta played for Great Britain since 2012 when she officially became a British citizen. She first moved to the country at the age of 14. During her professional career, Konta was the poster girl for British tennis after achieving a series of accolades. In October 2016 she became the first female player from her country to break into the world’s top 10 in over 30 years. A year later at Wimbledon she became the first British woman to reach the last four since Virginia Wade back in 1977.
“On behalf of the LTA and everyone involved in British Tennis I want to express my appreciation to Johanna for her hugely impressive career,” LTA CEO Scott Lloyd said in a statement. “To reach the semifinals of three slams and spend more time as British number one than any other woman since the WTA rankings began, shows the level of her achievements. We wish her well in the future, and hope that she will continue to play a role in British tennis in the years to come.”
On the WTA Tour Konta finished four seasons ranked in the world’s top 20 and achieved a ranking high of fourth in July 2017. She won a total of four titles with the most recent occurring at the Nottingham Open earlier this year. She also won two titles in 2017 (Sydney and Miami), as well as one in 2016 at Stanford. Konta was also a runner-up on five other occasions at the 2016 China Open, twice at the Nottingham Open, 2018 Italian Open and 2018 Rabat International.
A former Olympian, Konta recorded more than 20 wins over top 10 players throughout her career. Some of the players she beat include Simona Halep, Garbine Muguruza, Venus Williams, Agnieszka Radwanska and Petra Kvitova.
The physical demands of playing tennis at the highest level took their toll on Konta in recent years. In June she admitted that her knee problem may be a long-term issue she would have to deal with after not paying attention to the issue earlier on. She also dealt with other issues such as a thigh injury forcing her to miss the US Open in September.
“For me, it’s just about putting my emotional, mental, physical well-being in the position to put that energy and work in to be able to do that. It’s that link of being able to convince yourself to be in pain. I just ran out of steam for it,” Konta told WTA Insider.
“So when you get to that point, you can’t put your best self on display because you haven’t put in the work for it and you just don’t have the energy to put in the work for it.”
Konta, who made her pro debut in 2006, held the British No.1 spot for 5 years and 11 months consecutively which is the longest ever run since the WTA rankings was created back in 1975.
