Johanna Konta

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Johanna Konta

TTMan · Intermediate Club Player

One can "argue" this for hours wink but surely, most traffic just follows news worthiness (form, injury, controversy) whilst other postings are simply informative. Though I do feel that women, especially those at top, have to work harder to promote interest and that reflects most areas of life. Finding the right balance can sometimes be difficult.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

TTMan wrote:
One can "argue" this for hours but surely, most traffic just follows news worthiness (form, injury, controversy) whilst other postings are simply informative. Though I do feel that women, especially those at top, have to work harder to promote interest and that reflects most areas of life. Finding the right balance can sometimes be difficult.

Im sure you are correct, TTMan, which would tally with someone like Aljaz Bedene having lots of views, he was much in the tennis news during his switch to GB and out again.

GAMEOVER · Pro player

JonH comes home wrote:
if we go back a page or two, Marcus WIllis, Cam Norrie and Aljas Bedene get a fair number of views in the 40k region, Kyle as well gets a reasonable number and then Oli Golding on page 4! Not many of the other women get up towards the 40/50k level apart from those mentioned...

James Ward has over 47k. views. One would guess that Emma will have a large number of views in a short time. Although she's been on the scene for many years Heather has just short of 31k. views whereas Katie Swan has over 33k.Yet Katie Boulter only has 15.4k views. Or do some players have more fans than others?

TTMan · Intermediate Club Player

GAMEOVER wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
if we go back a page or two, Marcus WIllis, Cam Norrie and Aljas Bedene get a fair number of views in the 40k region, Kyle as well gets a reasonable number and then Oli Golding on page 4! Not many of the other women get up towards the 40/50k level apart from those mentioned...
James Ward has over 47k. views. One would guess that Emma will have a large number of views in a short time. Although she's been on the scene for many years Heather has just short of 31k. views whereas Katie Swan has over 33k.Yet Katie Boulter only has 15.4k views. Or do some players have more fans than others?

Using Instagram as a rough guide to number of fans, Emma has 406k followers, Jo 154k, Katie B 134k, Laura 132k, Heather 111k and Katie Swan 79k. Though, clearly not all IG followers will be serious tennis fans, Heather and Katie B's views, compared to Laura, Jo and Katie S, do look curiously low?

flamingowings · All-time great

Decent article on Jo, if not really telling us anything particularly new: www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/aug/29/johanna-konta-didnt-want-watch-wimbledon-after-covid-enforced-withdrawal-us-open

Hopefully she really is feeling alot better after having covid.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Konta had previously expressed uncertainty about taking the Covid-19 vaccine and she was unvaccinated when she contracted the virus. Asked if she regretted her decision given that it may have lessened the severity of her symptoms, she was wary of discussing the subject.

As in refused to discuss it as it stops right there!

flamingowings · All-time great

JonH comes home wrote:
Konta had previously expressed uncertainty about taking the Covid-19 vaccine and she was unvaccinated when she contracted the virus. Asked if she regretted her decision given that it may have lessened the severity of her symptoms, she was wary of discussing the subject.

As in refused to discuss it as it stops right there!

Plenty of people in the public eye do not discuss certain subjects. She is likely to be wary of further discussion about this subject - whilst disappointing since she is a public figure who people look up to - it is her right not to discuss things she doesn't want to.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

flamingowings wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Konta had previously expressed uncertainty about taking the Covid-19 vaccine and she was unvaccinated when she contracted the virus. Asked if she regretted her decision given that it may have lessened the severity of her symptoms, she was wary of discussing the subject.

As in refused to discuss it as it stops right there!
Plenty of people in the public eye do not discuss certain subjects. She is likely to be wary of further discussion about this subject - whilst disappointing since she is a public figure who people look up to - it is her right not to discuss things she doesn't want to.

I wasnt judging particularly , just clarifying what the reporter was saying !

GAMEOVER · Pro player

Meanwhile Mike Dickson writes that there have been suggestions that Jo is considering her long term future, Simon Briggs writes that a defeat against Kiki Mladenovic would bump her out of the world's top 50 for the first time since she made her breakthrough at this event(US Open) in 2015. He continues perhaps we are turning a page in tennis history. Change is afoot with Emma Raducanu in particular looking like she will climb the ladder quickly. Remember Heather Watson's comment last year at the French about where the successors were to herself and Jo? Of course Emma wasn't playing then because of Covid regulations and study.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

www.youtube.com/watch

I still don't think Emma would have been on Heathers mind during that interview as she was specifically talking about the 'next generation', but there was (or rather is) 11 years between those two players, a couple of generations at least, so I don't think she was questioning Emma's potential. As you alluded to, Emma was in the 340s, still 17 (had only played 4 events since turning 17, all W25s, 2 of which were R1 or 2 retirements), and hadn't played a tour match for 7 months at the time of this interview, so she wouldn't be fresh on the mind.

'Good little group of players right now' with the likes of Jo, herself, Dan etc. who were all late 20's / early 30s, and Norrie, but the 'next generation' are those early to mid 20's, the likes of your Dart's, Clarke's, Choinski's, Swan's, Burrage, Bains, Boulters, I'm sure those were the players she was referring to when mentioning who's going to be top 50, and she had a legit point - to only have one player, on either side, even close to the top 50 (Norrie, who was circa 70 at the time) from those aged 28+ to those 18+, isn't particularly good.

*Of course Boulter had already cracked the top 100 and was extremely unlucky with injuries, and could have easily been an established top 100 player / possibly top 50, and other similar unfortunate circumstances elsewhere, and with some positive results these past few months, there's probably renewed hope that a few players can crack, or get back in the top 100, but it would have still been pretty hard to sell that current landscape 11 months ago to the likes of marketers, investors, causal fans etc.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Monday 30th of August 2021 10:20:00 AM

indiana · Tennis legend

The Katies etc block has always for me looked the best generational block that we have had in a very long time.

That just about remains the case in numbers, though there have been differing issues that have taken the likes of Katy D, Maia and Gabi out of the equation for now. But yes in general overall the rankings progress has at best stalled for a while and players have not pushed on into looking like top 100 and beyond, other than Katie B when fit.

But Emma plus Fran now certainly add, and indeed Emma looks the most likely Jo/Heather successor. In general we are looking for some to push on from our 4 currently ranked from 150 to 190 ( Emma, Harriet, Fran and Katie B ) plus there is so much more potentially there from Jodie and Katie S. It is also worth considering that there are many players who have significantly pushed on again in their mid to late 20s.

But they do in time have to make it happen rather than it remain "potential".

dodrade · Satellite level

JonH comes home wrote:
Konta had previously expressed uncertainty about taking the Covid-19 vaccine and she was unvaccinated when she contracted the virus. Asked if she regretted her decision given that it may have lessened the severity of her symptoms, she was wary of discussing the subject.

As in refused to discuss it as it stops right there!

She normally seems pretty sensible, I wonder if perhaps she has been effected by some of the vaccine fertility scare stories.

flamingowings · All-time great

dodrade wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Konta had previously expressed uncertainty about taking the Covid-19 vaccine and she was unvaccinated when she contracted the virus. Asked if she regretted her decision given that it may have lessened the severity of her symptoms, she was wary of discussing the subject.

As in refused to discuss it as it stops right there!
She normally seems pretty sensible, I wonder if perhaps she has been effected by some of the vaccine fertility scare stories.

I will admit to also being wary regarding vaccine and fertility stories but tbh I don't see not getting it because it is unlikely us normal folk will be able to travel without it.

emmsie69 · ATP level

I genuinely think it was a timing issue rather than anything else. Unitl Delta came along it was reasonably easy to avoid contracting covid if you didn't have school age children and avoided certain situations. I've been working on the Railway the entire time and haven't even been pinged, my son has been merrily riding around on public transport and has only been pinged once and that was 2 weeks ago (both vaccinated anyway)