Australian Open 2016: Johanna Konta beaten by Angelique Kerber and insists historic run has not changed her
She may have made British tennis history and secured a place in the top 30 of the women’s world rankings for the first time, but Johanna Konta insists her fairytale Australian Open has not changed her.
Konta’s odds-defying run to the semi-finals ended today with a nervy 7-5, 6-2 defeat against German seventh seed Angelique Kerber, who faces defending champion Serena Williams in Saturday's final.
In the past fortnight the Sydney-born Briton has already earned more prize money than she did in the entirety of last year and confirmed her late-2015 surge up the rankings was no fluke.
But she remained enduringly sanguine in the wake of defeat to Kerber and maintained that her emergence as a grand slam force has not affected her mindset or post-tournament priorities.
“I don’t feel very different,” the 24-year-old said, comparing last year’s loss in qualifying to this year becoming the first British woman to reach the last four since 1983. Both times I was looking forward to going home to see my family. I go home to see my parents, spend some time in my own bed. That stays the same.”
Of her defeat, she added: “It depends what you view as disappointment. I don’t live my life and feel my happiness or joy on my wins and losses. I played against a better player today who earned her right into a Grand Slam final. That’s how I view it.”
World No1 Williams took just 64 minutes to end fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska’s 13-match winning sequence 6-0, 6-4 and stay on course to equal Steffi Graf’s Open era record of 22 grand slam titles.