10 July,2017 09:42 AM IST | London | PA Sport
Johanna Konta's coach Wim Fissette has revealed how he makes the British No. 1 learn tactics off-by-heart and recite them before her matches at Wimbledon
Johanna Konta's coach Wim Fissette has revealed how he makes the British No. 1 learn tactics off-by-heart and recite them before her matches at Wimbledon. No player in the women's draw has won a higher percentage of first sets this year than Konta, who in nine grand slam ties has lost the opening frame just once. That was against Serena Williams at the Australian Open in January and even in her shock French Open loss to Su-wei Hsieh, Konta blitzed the first set 6-1.
Her fast starts are no fluke. Konta is prepared meticulously for her opponents by Fissette and expected to commit every detail of her game-plan to memory.
It means in the minutes before she walks out on Court One today, to face Caroline Garcia in the last 16, Konta will be reciting her strategy. "What we do at Wimbledon is I text her the game plan the night before and she reads it. It's quite a long message," Fissette said.
"There are tactical messages but also some mental messages of what I feel is important that day. Twenty minutes before the match she starts to warm up, which is quite intense, but five minutes before she goes out on court she repeats the messages back to me. She recites her intentions for the match and if something is missing I tell her she has forgotten it, especially if it's something important.
"You could say it is like a little exam and maybe a bit unusual but when she is 100 per cent clear about her intentions that is when Jo plays her best matches. There are matches sometimes when I feel she is not completely clear and that is when it gets tough."
The routine sounds intense but Fissette's pep-talks are rarely designed to fire Konta up. The Belgian has worked with Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka, Sabine Lisicki and Simona Halep in the past, but says Konta likes to keep things light. "We all tell jokes. Everybody is different. When I worked with Azarenka, two hours before her match she is completely in her zone. In that time, we are definitely not talking anymore. With Kim she was very relaxed before matches, she would hug a baby nearby or play with a dog going past.
"Johanna is a bit like that. She is usually very relaxed as well and we often joke and laugh. It is good for her mindset."
Meanwhile, Garcia is enjoying the greatest grand slam success of her career as she prepares to face Konta - after enraging her Fed Cup teammates by quitting the France team. Imminent Wimbledon glory may await the 23-year-old Frenchwoman, who as a teenager was famously tipped as a future world number one by Andy Murray.
And if she beats Konta to earn a second successive quarter-final in a major, following her run to the same stage at the French Open, then Garcia's big career decision will look like spectacularly smart judgement.
Garcia has been denied the Centre Court appearance she craved for today's Wimbledon clash with Konta, after it was scheduled as the opening match on Court One.
"It'll be a really tough match. A British player at Wimbledon, that's never easy. It'll maybe be on Centre Court. I've never played there, I've never been in the stands," she said.
"I'll try to go there on Sunday. It's important to get a feeling of the atmosphere. After that's it's just a court with a net and lines. I'll practise hard to be ready. I'll have the public against me as you'd expect so I'll have to be ready."
