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THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 29, 2019

Johanna Konta

Wimbledon, London, England

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How are you feeling? Wimbledon obviously the biggest tournament of the year. What are your thoughts?
JOHANNA KONTA: I'm excited. I'm really happy to be home. I'm happy to be here. Yeah, I'm enjoying my time on the grass. I was really excited yesterday, was the first time I came on-site to hit. Excited to put on all white.

No, I'm really looking forward to it.

Q. How would you describe the openness of the women's tour now with the number of different players who are winning majors?
JOHANNA KONTA: I mean, I wouldn't look at it as so much openness as more just depth in our game. I think we have so many high-quality players, there's very little separating those players, which I think is really exciting and great in terms of every tournament, every round, every match is not for certain. I think that makes it really exciting for everybody who's watching.

I mean, I think being a part of the game right now, I feel very lucky. Yeah, I get to play against the best players in the world. I'm just really enjoying being a part of the tour right now.

Q. You were obviously so successful during the clay swing, better than you've ever played before. Have you found the transition to grass a little tougher this year? You missed Nottingham. Was that fatigue? Have you been able to spend enough time on grass to find your grass feet?
JOHANNA KONTA: Yeah, I decided not to play Nottingham just to give my body a bit of a rest. Not just because of Paris. I played a lot of matches in that month, month and a half. It was just to give myself a little bit of time.

It's always a very short turnaround between clay and grass, especially if you have a good clay court season, it becomes shorter, which is a great problem, I guess.

I played five really great matches on the surface. I think I'm as prepared as I'm going to be here. Yeah, no, I feel pretty good.

Q. What are your memories of two years ago? What stands out of the semifinal run?
JOHANNA KONTA: I think probably what stands out is I remember just really enjoying the routine of being able to come here, play my match, then go home. More than anything, I think I really embraced that. Felt really lucky that I got to play one of the biggest tournaments in the world, go home at the end of the day.

Q. What is your prematch ritual at Wimbledon from the music you listen to, to food you eat, to superstitions?
JOHANNA KONTA: Wimbledon doesn't defer in any way to any of the other tournaments.

I don't have any specific routines to do with music. I actually don't really listen to music before I go on court. I actually prefer conversation. Although recently I've been playing a lot of Bananagram with my team. That's been getting intense. We have to leave enough time before I play and the last Bananagram because things get intense. Need to calm down after that.

But otherwise, I mean, yeah, there's nothing specific to Wimbledon. I think right now I'm in the -- what's the locker room called - the seeded locker rooms, upstairs. They're new this year. It's actually quite nice seeing the changes they made there. I guess room to make new routines.

Q. What do you remember of your earliest thoughts about Wimbledon before you ever had a chance to play here?
JOHANNA KONTA: Uhm, to be honest, I'm not too sure. I spent my young years in Australia. I think I was more aware of the Australian Open at that age. I think once coming to the UK 14 years ago now, so half my life now, it was more I was by then already very much in the sport.

I think for me it was always when I got the first opportunity to come here and play, that was kind of the biggest Wimbledon moment for me. I remember I played actually an American girl Christina McHale on the court -- what is the court where you come in from the entrance? It was that first court there. Anyway, there.

I lost 10-8 in the third. It was actually probably one of the best experiences of my career.

Q. Why?
JOHANNA KONTA: Because I got to experience so many firsts. I got to experience playing 10-8 in the third in this Grand Slam. It was my first -- was it my first main draw? I think it was my first main draw. I can't remember. Also we had to play the match over two days. We got stopped for light. The next day we got stopped for rain.

There were so many first experiences. I learnt so much from one match.

Q. Given your early upbringing in Australia, when England play Australia in cricket, do you have any sort of divided loyalties at all?
JOHANNA KONTA: No.

Q. Really?
JOHANNA KONTA: Yeah, really.

Q. You were quite happy for us.
JOHANNA KONTA: I don't follow cricket. I actually don't know what's going on in the cricket. I'm sorry.

Q. What is Bananaram?
JOHANNA KONTA: Bananagram.

Q. What is that?
JOHANNA KONTA: It's kind of like Scrabble. You can Google this. You don't need me to explain (laughter).

It's basically you start off with 21 tiles, and you say Bananagram, you flip them over, try to use up all your tiles with words. They have to connect like in Scrabble. Once you've used up your tiles, you say 'peel,' there's still a bunch of tiles in the middle. Everyone has to take one. It's basically whoever can get to the end first, finish first.

Q. When did you start doing that?
JOHANNA KONTA: Rome. It was Dan's idea. Dan brought it, he taught me, then I beat him, so...

Q. The new Fed Cup was announced this week in terms of the new format. What do you make of the changes as someone who has had amazing results in Fed Cup?
JOHANNA KONTA: To be honest, I haven't quite looked specifically at what the changes are. I know they got sent through to me. I haven't really looked it over, so I can't really say yet. I actually don't fully know what it looks like.

Q. I don't think Ana Bogdan, your first opponent, played in the tie against Romania and Britain. You played her once and you won.
JOHANNA KONTA: I played her a few weeks ago, in Rabat. I recently played her. She played very well against me there. I think what we've seen so many times is players can play very inspired tennis. I think especially a slam, Wimbledon lends itself for inspired tennis.

She moves well. She, yeah, retrieves the ball well. She's able to play great tennis. It will be a tough match.

Q. Must help you have a fresh memory of beating her three, four, five weeks ago.
JOHANNA KONTA: I don't think a fresh memory of beating anyone necessarily helps in any way. I think what is good is that because I've been on court against her, I can remember the kind of ball she plays. However, it was on a different surface, as well. Grass definitely lends itself to different things. Players usually adapt differently to grass, so we'll see.

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