What a difference a year makes.
Just 12 months ago, Johanna Konta was planning for a North American campaign away from the Grand Slam limelight following her fourth consecutive first-round exit at the hands of Maria Sharapova.
Today the 25-year-old is the British No.1, the world No.19, an Australian Open semi-finalist and the first Briton to be seeded at The Championships since Jo Durie in 1984. She backed up the ranking rise with a creditable 6-1, 7-5 victory over Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig, her first Wimbledon win.
“I've worked my whole life, since I was eight years old, on becoming the best tennis player I could be,” said Konta, the fifth Briton through to the second round in 2016. “In that sense, I've been doing this for 17 years, so it didn't exactly happen from one day to the next.
“I am very, very grateful for the experiences that I've had in quite a condensed, short period of time. I think that I am very grateful for that, enjoying that very much. Then again, also, the previous year where I had lost in the first round here, I had played some very, very good players. I always say I'm a firm believer in accumulating experiences. I'm most certain that if I hadn't had those experiences, I wouldn't have been able to deal with the example of today or the last few days.”
I've worked my whole life, since I was eight years old, on becoming the best tennis player I could be
On paper, this was as tough an opening match as Konta could have drawn. At No.36 in Monday’s WTA rankings, Puig currently ranks above Andrea Petkovic, the No.32 seed. Like Konta, she reached the Eastbourne semi-finals last week, beating Caroline Wozniacki and Kristina Maldenovic – also seeded at The Championships – en route.
But tennis isn’t played on paper, and Konta made good on her status out on No.1 Court. She dropped just four points on serve in the first set, made just four errors and converted all three break points she brought up, leaving with a 6-1, 2-1 lead before play was suspended early in the second set on Tuesday.
Reprieved, Puig shot out of the blocks when they eventually returned under gloomy skies on Wednesday, winning the first three games for a 4-2 lead. But Konta responded, breaking back to level up at 4-4 off the back of some baseline-burning returns before closing out victory. Konta faces the former Wimbledon semi-finalist Eugenie Bouchard in the second round on Thursday.
Elsewhere on Wednesday, fellow Britons Daniel Evans and Heather Watson were thwarted by another rainy day over south-west London. Evans, playing his second-round match with with No.30 seed Alexandr Dolgopolov, was forced off No.2 Court with the first set level at 6-6.
Watson’s first-round match against Annika Beck, initially scheduled for Tuesday, will resume on Thursday with the German a break to the good after winning seven straight games to lead 3-6, 6-0, 1-0. Beck injured her ankle during a nasty slip at the baseline on Court 12 that required a medical time-out shortly before play was suspended for the final time on the outside courts.
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