Johanna Konta was grateful to get a monkey off her back as she stepped up her Wimbledon preparation by claiming her first trophy in over four years at the Nottingham Open.
Konta’s last tournament victory came in Miami back in April 2017 and she has lost in four WTA finals since – including at the Nottingham Open in 2017 and 2018.
But it was third time lucky at the Nottingham Tennis Centre, as she cruised past fourth seed Zhang Shuai of China 6-2, 6-1 with a dominant performance.
Konta became the first British woman to win a tournament on home soil since Sue Barker in 1981 and the 30-year-old showed a comfort on the grass courts all week that bodes well ahead of Wimbledon, which gets underway in a fortnight’s time.
“Finals are not easy to come by and whoever is standing here works very hard to be here, so well done to Zhang and well done to me, I guess!” said Konta, in her victory speech on court.
“I haven’t done a winning speech in a long time, so this feels very, very nice and a bit odd. Thank you to my team – I’m surrounded by great people and know how lucky I am to be surrounded by great people.
“Obviously I won the tournament, which is nice, and I do not take this for granted. I’ve lost quite a few finals in the recent ones I’ve played – it’s very, very hard to win tournaments and so, I know how lucky I am to be standing here with the trophy.
“I feel very grateful that I’ve been able to put five matches together – I’m proud of myself and proud of my team.”
Rio 2016 Olympian Konta had only won three matches in 2021 before this week, but a string of five victories ended her trophy drought in style.
Konta’s serve had been firing all tournament long and it did once more in the final, as she won 85% of points on her first serve.
Have won the first set against Zhang, the Brit broke early in the second and after securing that break, would only lose six points in the rest of the match as a comfortable straight-sets victory was wrapped up.
And winning a trophy named after former British No.1 Elena Baltacha – who tragically died of liver cancer aged just 30 back in 2014 – made the victory all the more special for Konta.
“I love Nottingham, I love this centre court – it’s a beautiful court to play on,” she added. “The trophy is called the Elena Baltacha Trophy – she hasn’t been with us for a number of years but still, to this day, she has had such a massive impact on me.
“As a young girl growing up in this country, seeing the way Elena competed, the way she lived her career and her life, she impacted so many people.
“Winning this trophy means so much more – I lost it twice before, so I just wanted to say thank you to her.”
Sportsbeat 2021