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'So sad': Tennis world left devastated over Johanna Konta news

Sam Goodwin
·Sports Editor
·4-min read
Johanna Konta, pictured here in action at Wimbledon in 2017.
Johanna Konta in action at Wimbledon in 2017. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

Tennis fans have been left surprised and saddened after Johanna Konta announced her retirement at age 30.

The former World No.4 has struggled with a persistent knee injury over the last few years and has slipped to 113 in the rankings.

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On Wednesday night she made the sad announcement that she has decided to retire.

"This is the word that I've probably used the most during my career and is the word that I feel explains it best in the end," Konta wrote on social media in a post headed 'Grateful'.

"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."

Konta told WTA Insider that she'd simply run out of steam.

"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," she said.

"It's that link of being able to convince yourself to be in pain. I just ran out of steam for it.

"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."

Johanna Konta, pictured here with Ash Barty after the final of the Nature Valley Open in Nottingham in 2018.
Johanna Konta alongside Ash Barty after the final of the Nature Valley Open in Nottingham in 2018. (Photo by Ben Hoskins/Getty Images for LTA) (Getty Images for LTA)

Tennis world devastated over Johanna Konta news

Born in Australia to Hungarian parents, Konta moved to Europe to pursue her tennis career as a teenager, settling with her family in Eastbourne and becoming a British citizen in 2012.

Her emergence at the top of the game began in 2015, and the following year she reached her first grand slam semi-final at the Australian Open and climbed into the top 10.

Her best season was arguably in 2017, when she became the first British player since Virginia Wade to make the semi-finals at Wimbledon.

That year she won the biggest of her four career titles at the Miami Open and peaked at fourth in the rankings.

Konta slipped down the rankings in 2018 but was resurgent the following year, making another grand slam semi-final at the French Open as well as quarter-finals at Wimbledon and the US Open.

Tennis fans and former players have flocked to social media to pay tribute.

with AAP

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