Saturday Kitchen: Johanna Konta on year of 'rotten luck'
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Johanna Konta joined James Martin Saturday Morning on ITV and candidly opened up about her career and moments she would never forget. Speaking about the recent year of her career being in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and struggling with an ongoing knee injury, Johanna revealed what is to come for her in 2022 and opened up about the 2016 Rio Olympics being the highlight of her career.
Whilst making Johanna’s favourite meal of Cottage Pie, James asked: “So, what’s 2022 going to bring to you?
“Because to say, you’ve not had it easy, nobody has it easy in that game, but injury particularly has sort of blighted your career, and COVID got in the middle of it as well.”
Johanna revealed: “Well, I mean, I wouldn’t say I’ve had that many injuries, but in the most recent history of my career, I’ve had a knee issue that I’ve been managing.
“It hasn’t been easy, but I think this year, to be honest, I’ve just had rotten luck, I think a little bit last year.
“So, I mean right now, it’s going to be about assessing where I am and then kind of taking it from there, what I wanna do, how I wanna do things moving forward.”
James continued: “And I suppose you train so hard for that, a bit like the Olympics, that must have been one of the pinnacles of your career?”
“You know what, representing GB in Rio in 2016 is probably the highlight of my career, I would say,” Johanna admitted. She continued: “It was incredible!”
Shocked at her confession, James asked: “Above all the slams and everything?”
Laughing at James surprise, Johanna explained: “No, it really was, it was that feeling of where you really immerse yourself in something that’s bigger than you, and you really felt it.
“It was not about, you know, my match or my sport it was just this collective team, and I guess I’d never done a team sport when I was younger.
“I was so excited to be immersed in just this environment of athletes, and we were all there supporting each other,” she said.
Johanna continued: “I would come back from a match of mine, and I’d have some divers and hockey players and rugby players just being like ‘Yeah, I watched your match’.
“And I was like ‘What, you watched my match!’ so yeah, no unbelievable experience!”
Johanna announced her retirement from tennis at the age of 30 earlier this month after struggling with the injuries she had sustained during her career.
Unfortunately, because of the injuries, she slipped to No. 113 in the WTA rankings and recently surprised her fans after announcing she had married her finance, Jackson Wade.
Johanna reached the Grand Slam semi-finals at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon, winning the Miami Open and peaking at world number four in 2017.
In a statement announcing her retirement, Johanna said: “I would love to still play on the biggest stages in the world and play at my best, so it’s not at all that I don’t want to do that.
“It’s just that … I don’t have the energy anymore. It’s quite a nice place to leave it. I finished playing the sport, still loving the sport. I don’t think there is much more that I can ask of myself.”
“There’s a lot of highs, a lot of lows, a lot of different emotions that come with being an elite sportsperson.
“So, for me, it was just important to give myself the space and the time to let emotions settle, let feelings settle. And I felt like I would just know when I was ready.”
James Martin Saturday Morning airs Saturdays at 9:30am on ITV.
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