Although Britain’s Davis Cup team continue to astound after another heroic performance from Andy Murray, the men are most certainly not monopolising the national tennis spotlight. With another title for Heather Watson, the prominence of the nation’s top women players continue to flourish.
Naturally the victory of Leon Smith’s team over Japan in Coventry took top billing over the weekend. However, following Watson’s title win at Monterrey’s Abierto Monterrey Afirme and Naomi Broady’s progression to the Kuala Lumpur Open semi-final, Britain now have three players in the WTA’s top 80.
Johanna Konta continues to lead in a career-high No 26 position and is set to be one of the seeds at this week’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells while Watson’s title on Sunday meant she enjoyed a 31 place boost up the WTA rankings from 84th position to 53rd. And Broady is up to a best ever ranking of world No 76.
Success is known to be contagious and that has certainly been the case for the Brits who just a few weeks ago were lamenting a missed opportunity in the Fed Cup when hopes of promotion into the World Group were dashed by defeat to Belgium in the Euro/Africa Zone Group One promotion play-off.
Konta, the British No 1, was unable to make the trip to Eilat, Israel because of an intestinal problem following her exertions in reaching the Australian Open’s semi-finals, the first British woman to go so far in a major for 33 years. According to Judy Murray, the Fed Cup captain, Konta’s run in Melbourne provided the inspiration for the others to raise their game.
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“I think it was a huge encouragement and source of inspiration to the all the players,” said Murray. “For them to see Jo break through provided them with the sort of boost to say ‘Yeah, I want to get up there as well’.”
Watson’s determination to win in Monterrey was laudable after a disappointing start to the year. She is still without a permanent coach after parting with Diego Veronelli at the end of last year. Murray stood in as a temporary replacement during January’s Australian campaign but the defence of the Hobart International title won a year previously was a brief affair and then she suffered defeat on day one of the grand slam at Melbourne Park, after allowing Timea Babos of Hungary get the better of an undulating match.
The 23 year-old had been working with Pat Harrison while training at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida before travelling to Mexico but it was left to Michelle, her mother, to come onto court, as is normal on the WTA circuit, to offer calming advice at a tricky time in the first set.
Watson scored one of her highest profile victories en route to the title, beating Caroline Wozniacki, the former world No 1, in Friday’s quarter-final. In the final she shrugged off two previous career meetings with 30-year-old Kirsten Flipkens to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, admitting: “She’s a great player who really makes you work for it. It was so tough and I really had to dig deep.”
This is exactly the mindset currently prevalent amongst the British women and Broady is also reaping the dividends of resolutely sticking to the task of achieving her aims. In Auckland at the beginning of the year, as a qualifier, she overcame Ana Ivanovic, the former world No 1, and went on to reach the quarter-finals.
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Broady did even better in Kuala Lumpur with Sabine Lisicki, the former Wimbledon runner-up, amongst her victims on the way to a semi-final finish. Add to the mix, a title at and ITF Futures $100,000 event in Midland, Michigan and it’s easy to see why the 26 year-old from Stockport has seen her ranking rise by almost 50 places from a year opening position as world No 122.
“I’m really enjoying my tennis right now,” Broady insists. “My goal at the start of the year was to break into the top 100. I’ve already achieved that.
“Ultimately I would like to be the British No 1, but I’ve got to put in a lot more work to reach Konta’s level. She reached the Australian Open semis-finals [in January] and it has motivated me to do well too.”
There are other reasons for optimism. Katie Swan, who made her full international bow in Israel, became the youngest British player in Fed Cup history at the age of 16 years and 316 days. Murray also has big expectations for 18 year-old Freya Christie who progressed all the way to the final of a $25,000 Futures event in Shrewsbury last November after starting out in the qualifying rounds.
Both cite Konta, who for so long seemed just a journeywoman stuck outside the world’s top 100 as an example. Andy Murray has provided inspiration to a younger generation including Kyle Edmund and Daniel Evans. Now Johanna Konta is doing the same for the British women and hopefully all that remains is for Laura Robson to finally make a successful comeback after too many false starts.