True, the question is how sick is she? I'm not quite sure from the Beeb report. It could be precautionary to an extent too. She's had a great run and is set for alot of high level tennis this year.
With Mladenovic losing in Moscow, then according to the usually highly unreliable live rankings list below, Jo will rise to WR27 on Monday, the equal highest by any UK gal this century...
She could climb a further place the following week also, as Stosur drops points and falls below her, and neither are due to play.
This is fine progress for sitting on the sofa - Claire Balding's sofa, apparently, and coming to the telly soon.
With Jo having so few points to defend, and with the massive 282 point gap between the top 32 and WR33, this could now happen quite regularly, until she has some significant 2015 points to defend herself, after Paris.
As I am sometimes wont to do, I was idly wondering about rankings, and given Johanna's start to the season, what would she have to do in order to achieve the highest placed finish by a Brit in the Year End Race over the last few years. Turns out though, and this was surprising to me, at least, that she already did it, last year! The final positions of the top ranked Brits over the last 10 years have been as follows:-
Year
Player
YE Rank
YE points
2016
Johanna Konta
*
782*
2015
Johanna Konta
44
1107
2014
Heather Watson
49
1048
2013
Laura Robson
46
1212
2012
Heather Watson
49
1161
2011
Elena Baltacha
49
1120
2010
Elena Baltacha
55
1092
2009
Anne Keothavong
73
643
2008
Anne Keothavong
91
278
2007
Katie O'Brien
126
166
2006
Sarah Borwell
192
51
So, Jo already is the top GB placed YE Race finisher, with her 44th race last year; though Laura in 2013 has the top YE points haul. The seeming discrepancy is largely explained by the Serena points vacuum effect that was exerted in 2015 as she closed in on the calendar Grand Slam; Serena hoovering up all the points from almost every major tournament, concentrating them at the top and skewing the rest of the field as a consequence.
Also, interesting that Bally in 2011 & Heather in 2012 also outscored Jo, despite ending the season race behind her mark. The ranking system has been tweaked, but the general score for early rounds at smaller tournaments - such as those in which Bally (in particular), & Hev, accrued most of their points, has gone down, not up!
With Jo's start to the year, she surely has every chance to set new marks for both rank and points this year. I found it all an interesting trifle
Well she already has 780 points from the Australian Open result, so I can't imagine it will take much to beat Laura's points tally from 2013. If she has a reasonably consistent year, maybe winning around one to two matches on average each tournament (although you'd hope on a fair few occasions, she manages more), that should be enough.
What that graph does show is that there is clear progress from the late 00's at the top of the women's game in Britain. It's leveled out over the past few years, but at least it isn't dropping off.
Very interesting (and very well presented!) - and I hadn't even thought to check whether Jo's 2015 year-end race position was the highest by a Brit yet.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!