Great Britain handed Fed Cup blow as Johanna Konta rules herself out
Great Britain’s hopes of reaching April’s inaugural Fed Cup finals week suffered a double blow on Friday. Johanna Konta told reporters that she will not participate in the competition at all this year, while Katie Boulter also expressed doubts over the upcoming tie in Bratislava.
Konta and Boulter both performed brilliantly in the team event last season. Should neither be available, British captain Anne Keothavong will face some tricky selectorial decisions ahead of the Slovakia match in three weeks’ time.
Speaking in Melbourne on Friday, Konta explained that her decision is connected to the chronic knee pain that has restricted her to just a single competitive match in the last four-and-a-half months.
“It [the knee] is definitely part of it,” said Konta, who will open her Australian Open campaign on Monday against Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur. “It’s an Olympic year. I’m looking to schedule things for the longevity of my body and to be able to come back in following years and hopefully play more Fed Cup.”
As for Boulter, she has not played top-tier tennis since Great Britain’s last Fed Cup outing, which came against Kazakhstan at London’s Copper Box Arena. It was then, in late April, that she braved back pain to face Zarina Dyas in what proved to be the decisive rubber. Yet this decision looked highly questionable when she developed a spinal stress fracture that kept her off the match court for the next seven months.
“I’m going to see how it goes, see how my body is,” said a cautious-sounding Boulter, when asked about Bratislava. “Clearly I haven’t played that many matches yet.” A further complicating factor is the surface chosen by the hosts. The tie will be staged on indoor clay, and switching between different types of court is always physically challenging.
Great Britain must win the tie to qualify for Budapest. Keothavong does have other options, however. Heather Watson enjoyed a superb week in Hobart as a qualifier, before losing a tight semi-final on Friday to Elena Rybakina. Meanwhile Harriet Dart qualified for the Australian Open’s main draw with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Giulia Gatto-Monticone.
“It’s unfortunate that Jo has decided to make herself unavailable for Fed Cup this year,” said Keothavong. “I had a productive conversation with her before Christmas when she explained what a difficult decision this was for her and her need to schedule smartly in 2020. We hope she will be available for future Fed Cup ties as we all saw how our women’s team captivated the nation in Bath and London last year. In the meantime our focus now will be on preparing the team as best we can for our World Group qualifier in Bratislava.”
Also in Melbourne, the debate over bushfire smoke has finally persuaded Tennis Australia to publish an air-quality policy. The document says that play will be suspended when the concentration of dangerous P2.5 particles exceeds 200 micrograms per cubic metre. If the score is between 97 and 200, “this will trigger a discussion between medical staff and officials about the advisability or otherwise of proceeding with match play.”
