As the new sister-in-law of GWS Giants ruckman Shane Mumford, Australian-born British tennis player Johanna Konta has a growing interest in a still-foreign game. That preliminary final loss to the Western Bulldogs? "Quite heartbreaking," says the world No.10, whose sister Eva is pregnant with the Mumfords' first child.
Yet Konta also thinks the Giants "did brilliantly" to have reached the finals in just their fifth year, and the same description is apt for her own breakout season. Having started as the world No.47 – up from 150th at the end of 2014 – she reached her first major semi-final at Melbourne Park, won her maiden WTA title at Stanford, reached the prestigious Beijing final, and proudly represented Team GB at the Rio Olympics.
Konta has a reason to keep a keen eye on the footy scores.Credit:Getty Images
Little wonder that a certain grand slam nation struggling to develop female players of note asked repeatedly last January if this one, well, you know, might possibly, um, fancy coming "home" to Oz.
Please?
Shane Mumford with Eva Konta at Bondi beach.Credit:Kirk Gilmour
"The running joke of the Australian Open this year, every single press conference that I had, it was about 'will you come back?' '' said Konta, whose Hungarian parents Gabor and Gabriella left for the UK when Johanna moved to the Sanchez-Casal Tennis Academy in Spain at the age of 14.
"And every time I had to politely decline, and say I was flattered, which I am. But my sister still lives in Sydney, and actually I'm going to become an aunty soon, and she's recently married, so there's still a lot of exciting things for me in Australia in terms of family. But my home is very much the UK."
Still, the Mumford connection – Shane was in the crowd for her Australian Open loss to eventual champion Angelique Kerber – means Konta is "starting to learn more about AFL and the actual rules of it. I'm still working my way up there." She "did not quite understand" the bit about these so-called "preliminary finals ... (Eva) was like 'it's just a semi-final'. I was like 'OK, got it'."
And followed it, via the news and her sister, but didn't see it – Konta was in Wuhan, China, that September weekend at the time that Spotless Stadium was witnessing the Bulldogs take the penultimate step towards the best AFL fairytale in decades.
Konta's own tale, too, has a rousing feel-good element, as one of a battling journeywoman-made-good to the tune of $2.8 million in prizemoney already this season and the first top-10 ranking for a British woman since Jo Durie in 1984.
Having just missed out on a place in the WTA Finals due to Svetlana Kuznetsova's dramatic lunge past her via the Kremlin Cup, the 24-year-old has one more tournament to play: next week's WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai. Konta then plans to eat her way through the gelato and other foodie delights of Rome and visit extended family in Hungary during the off-season before starting 2017 at the Brisbane International, with Sydney and the Australian Open to follow.
"I definitely can't be greedy with being too disappointed about not making Singapore," said Konta, the bilingual, tri-passport baseliner who received $90,000 for being the first alternate after being squeezed out of the eight-player field at the 11th hour by the amateur hairdresser from Russia.
"I really have had a year full of amazing experiences. I've played a lot of events and I've been very successful at a lot of them as well, this year, so I do count myself very lucky and I'm very humbled by all the different things I got to see and just really live through. Obviously starting in Australia, and then the summer, being a seed at Wimbledon, the Olympics, Stanford and then Beijing. Not many players can say that they've had such special moments in pretty much every single part of the year."
Asked to name her best moment of 2016, the Eastbourne resident insists on nominating three: her three-set Wimbledon loss as the 16th seed to Eugenie Bouchard on centre court; her Olympic experiences, including a high-quality fourth-round defeat of Svetlana Kuznetsova; and a three-set semi-final eclipse of Madison Keys at the China Open that ensured her top 10 debut.
No mention, then, of that run to the Australian Open semis, even for a player who – let's just mention it again, because we can – could easily be playing under the Australian flag. At least Konta is a Giants fan, with a soon-to-be-born Australian niece or nephew. The contribution of some good sporting genes to complement the Mumford muscle will have to suffice.
Linda Pearce is the Chief Tennis Writer and general sports reporter for The Age. She writes about a range of sports, including football, netball, and gymnastics. Linda has twice been named Australian tennis writer of the year.
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