Serena Williams destroys racquet early in final | Australian Open 2017
By Johnette Howard | Jan 23, 2017ESPN.com
Mary Jo Fernandez and Steph Brantz look ahead to Serena Williams" quarterfinal matchup against Johanna Konta and break down whether Rafael Nadal can overcome recent struggles against Milos Raonic.
MELBOURNE, Australia -- Fast-rising Johanna Konta isn"t a household name to many casual tennis fans yet. But it"s telling that she caughtSerena Williams"attention long before they were scheduled to play for the first time ever Wednesday, here in the Australian Open quarterfinals. Think of the ninth-ranked Konta as the distaff version of Andy Murray. She"s the first female British tennis player since Virginia Wade, really, who has a legit chance to challenge for Grand Slam titles.
Serena and her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, have noticed.
Williams will set an Open era record of 23 major singles title if she wins the championship in Melbourne, breaking a tie with steffi graf. williams will also yank the No. 1 ranking back from Angelique Kerber. Now that Murray has delivered major titles under the extraordinary pressure of having an entire kingdom watching him, it"s the 25-year-old Konta"s turn to see if she can. She was born in Sydney but now calls England her home. She has won eight straight matches without dropping a set and has started 2017 with a 13-1 match record that included her second career WTA title in Sydney.
Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
Serena Williams has yet to lose a set so far at the Australian Open, but neither had her quarterfinal opponent, Johanna Konta.
Like Williams, she"s a terrific server. It"s probably the strength of her game.
"I"ve been watching her a lot," Williams said earlier this week.
Said Mouratoglou on an ESPN television interview: "I saw [Konta] play early this year, and she"s one of the players who impressed me the most. I think she has no doubt at the moment. She hits every ball as if she thinks she can"t miss. You can see it."
It"s telling that the ninth-ranked Konta is even on Williams" radar. Serena is often coy when asked for details about what she"s up to, preferring to keep some mystery around how she maintains her world-beating edge. On Monday, even an innocuous question about how she uses the scouting videos that Mouratoglou told everyone he gives her on USB drives (some of them men"s matches that Williams studies for ideas) caused Williams to clam up.
"There are a lot of things that I do, I don"t really talk about all of them all the time," Williams said. "There may or may not be truth to that [video] story."
Williams is still the best player in the world and the favorite to get past Konta and eventually through to the final. But Konta has the game to give her a fascinating challenge. She hits the ball hard. She moves terrifically well. And people who know Konta say she is unlikely to be intimidated by Serena"s reputation. But it doesn"t hurt that bigger underdogs than Konta have pulled upsets at this tournament, including those who earlier this week knocked out Murray, Kerber and Novak Djokovic.
As ESPN analyst Chris Evert noted, "Every player thinks they have a shot now. And every player has hope when they come up against a top player."
Konta agrees. She made the semifinals here a year ago, losing to eventual champion Kerber in straight sets. When the accomplishment has been mentioned during introductions this year, Konta has admitted, "It gave me goosebumps." She has also been upbeat in believing she"s ready for the challenge of finally playing Serena, and the measuring stick it should provide. Konta has repeatedly emphasized how hard she has worked in the past year on maintaining her composure in high-stakes matches like this, and is eager to see how she will react.
All that said, Konta also knows she has never been tested like Serena could test her.
"It"s always been my dream to be at the top of the game," Konta said. "But I think there"s a lot of work to be done between reality and dreams. ... I believe in my own ability. I believe in the good things that I bring to the court, and I believe in my ability to fight "til the very end.
"I think it"s about playing, me going out there and doing what I want to do against her. And it will be about just staying focused on that. I"ve got to focus on the work and not think of whether I can or cannot beat her. Yeah. I just need to stay on the work."
Source: http://www.espn.com/espnw/sports/article/18541934/australian-open-why-johanna-konta-intimidated-serena-williams-reputation
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