Australian Open: Johanna Konta keeping her cool as Melbourne heats up

On Thursday, when Johanna Konta plays her second-round match against Bernarda Pera, forecasters are predicting a high of 38C

Britain's best hopes of success Down Under rest with Johanna Konta (Getty)

The Australian Open is hotting up. After benign weather on the first two days of the year’s opening Grand Slam tournament, temperatures are expected to have soared by the end of this week. On Thursday, when Johanna Konta plays her second-round match against Bernarda Pera, forecasters are predicting a high of 38C.

That is testing by anyone’s standards, but you will not hear any complaints from Konta, who spent the first 13 years of her life in Sydney.

“It’s not easy to play in the heat but I’ve always enjoyed it,” Konta said. “I think that is partly because when I was a young girl I spent time here so I think I do have memories of playing in hot conditions. However, we also follow the sun a lot, so playing in hot conditions is not necessarily outside of our comfort zone.

“Throughout the years, I’ve always struggled a bit more with humidity than with actual heat. I had to work very hard on making sure that I got better at playing in humidity with my hydration and everything like that. Not to say it’s an easy condition to play in, but I do enjoy it. I would rather play in the hot than the cold.”

Konta said that the memory of past victories in difficult conditions – including her three-hours-and-24-minutes win over Garbine Muguruza in intense heat and humidity at the US Open three years ago - was also a reason for her to think positively.

“I think you do feed on past experience,” she said. “Obviously there are still a lot of variables on any given day and on some days, even if you prepare well, you encounter challenges that are unexpected.

“Sometimes the body is not completely co-operating and it’s like: ‘Listen, I’m not a fan of this today. I don’t want to do this.’ So you do try to adapt and make sure you do everything you can in hydrating well and staying cool at the change of ends, all the little things.

“But I think it’s also having a good level of acceptance that it’s going to feel uncomfortable, but knowing that it’s feeling uncomfortable for everybody.”

Konta cruised past Madison Brengle in 66 minutes to reach the second round (Getty)

Konta will need to draw on her coach Michael Joyce’s deep well of experience when she takes on 23-year-old Pera after cruising past Madison Brengle in the first round here in Melbourne.

Konta had warned that Brengle could be a “tricky” player, but the world No 90 rarely threatened to match the achievements of Su-Wei Hsieh and Aleksandra Krunic, who had upset the 26-year-old Briton at the first round of last year’s French and US Opens respectively. Konta, playing with her customary aggression, cracked 37 winners on her way to a 6-3, 6-1 victory which came in just 66 minutes.

Attention now turns to America's Pera, who is playing in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, though Konta admitted on Tuesday that she knows very little about her opponent.

Pera, the world No 123, was born and raised in Croatia until her family left for the United States when she was 16. She represented the country of her birth as a junior but now has both Croatian and US passports. After moving to the States she was based at a tennis academy in New Jersey and also worked with coaches from the United States Tennis Association.

“It was just more convenient for me since I was in New Jersey,” Pera said of her decision to switch nationality. “I really liked the USTA coaches and all the people working there. I wanted to work with them.”

Recently, however, Pera has gone back to Lovro Roncevic, the coach who used to work with her back in Croatia, where she lived in the historic city of Zadar. She credits Roncevic with having helped her rapid rise up the world rankings last year. At the end of 2016 she was the world No 318.

Bernarda Pera in action against Anna Blinkova (Getty)

In order to work with Roncevic, Pera often returns to Zadar, where she learned to play the game on clay courts, which are her favourite surface.

Until her first-round win here over Russia’s Anna Blinkova, the best moment of Pera’s career had been her victory in an $80,000 tournament in the Czech Republic last year. However, she also had an unpleasant experience in Prague when she had to spend the night in a hospital after suffering an allergic reaction.

“I have a lot of food allergies,” Pera said. “I guess there was something in the food that I ate. It was really bad. I had to spend the night in hospital. I couldn’t feel my hands or my legs. I couldn’t move. I had cramps everywhere. I couldn’t breathe.

“I had eaten pasta. I’m allergic to chicken, so maybe it was chicken broth or something. I’m allergic to chicken, turkey and sea food.”

Pera said she did not know much about Konta’s game. “I’ll have to watch some YouTube videos,” she said. “I’ve seen her on the TV. She has a great serve, so I think it will be important for me to get the serve back. We’ll see. I’ll talk to my coach.”

Joyce, who became Konta’s coach only last month, worked with Maria Sharapova for six years and sometimes uses that experience in his work with the British No 1.

“Maria was a massive part of Michael’s coaching experience, so he definitely does talk about the past,” Konta said.

Konta spent the first 13 years of her life in Sydney and is used to the Australian heat (Getty)

“He obviously holds Maria in high regard, the competitor that she is and the way she’s able to fight through matches. I think that’s something that I can always look up to, the way that she competes, I think that’s one of her biggest assets.

“In that sense he does talk about the positive things there, but he does also refer back to the other girl that he worked with, Jessica Pegula, who, equally, I think, he had a really successful relationship with and learned a lot from as a coach himself. Like all of us, we are always referring back to our past experiences, but it’s not necessarily specific to any particular kind of moment with Maria or anyone.”

Joyce sees many similarities between Konta and Sharapova. “They both want it really bad,” the American said last week. “They both aren’t going to cut any corners to get there. They’re not going to leave any stone unturned.”

Konta said: “That’s a massive compliment, because I do think one of her biggest strengths is that side of her. I don’t necessarily compare myself to anybody and I definitely only want to be the best version of myself, but if I can be grouped together with her on that aspect I think that’s only a positive thing for my own competitiveness.”