Johanna Konta wins Viking Open Nottingham title
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Born in Sydney, Australia, Johanna moved to England at the mere age of 14, formally becoming a British citizen in May 2012. The budding tennis star quickly rose through the ranks, and at her best ranked No.4 in the world. However, it was in 2019 where cracks started to show for the athlete. Just 10 minutes into a match against Marie Bouzkova, Johanna needed medical assistance. Looking flushed, breathing heavily and unable to cope with the extreme humidity of Kentucky, the star had to be checked over in order to make sure she was fit to play.
This is not the first time that Johanna has suffered similar problems. According to the Independent, in 2016 the 30-year-old had breathing-related problems.
Since then the star has endured four more attacks, despite declaring that she was as “fit as a fiddle”.
Talking to reporters about these strange breathless spells in 2019, Johanna said: “I sometimes have heart palpitations. Basically my heart rate just shoots up for no reason.
“It makes me a bit light-headed. I just needed to see the doctor and the physio to see where it was at. It was very, very high.
“The first time it happened was in Birmingham in 2017; the second time was in Beijing 2018, actually in the evening match that day; the third time was three months ago, when I was doing my practice block on the clay at home in London.
“So I wouldn’t say that there’s a massive common denominator. It’s been under stressful situations, it’s been under actual no-stress situations.
Remaining cool and collected, the star brushed her health scare under the carpet, maintaining that she was still able to compete.
“It’s one of those things you need to catch in the moment to be able to record and measure it – which we haven’t been able to do, because it has been sporadic,” She continued.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s happened to me now twice in the past three months. But that’s no indication that it’s going to pick up frequency. I’ve had all the heart tests done you could possibly have, and my heart is absolutely fine. Obviously it’s not ideal. It’s probably not going to happen again for … a year. It’s one of those things but I’m not worried, no.”
According to the NHS, heart palpitations are heartbeats that suddenly become more noticeable.
Individuals may feel like their heart is pounding, fluttering or beating irregularly often for a few seconds or minutes.
Although at the time they may seem alarming, the NHS explains that they are usually harmless and not a sign of a serious problem. Causes of heart palpitations include:
- Lifestyle triggers
- Emotions and psychological triggers
- Medicines
- Hormone changes
- Heart rhythm problems
- Heart conditions
- Other medical conditions.
Like Johanna explained, stress and anxiety are common emotional or psychological triggers of heart palpitations – a small insight into the pressurised environment of professional sports.
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If heart palpitations were not enough to keep Johanna away from the courts, Covid came to ruin her chances at the Tokyo Olympics.
At the time the athlete said that the virus was “definitely the worst illness I’ve experienced for a very long time,” and that missing out on both Wimbledon and the Olympics was “heartbreaking”.
“It was very difficult. There was nothing good and nothing fun about having COVID and having to miss Wimbledon and the Olympics. There’s just no way around that,” Konta said.
“However, I consider myself quite a happy person, quite a positive person, and definitely a pragmatic person, and I like to practice perspective in all the good things I do have in my life. So I had to definitely utilise those tools. And at the end of the day, I looked at my life and everything’s okay.
“I just tried to draw energy from there and looked forward to when I could start training and get back out onto the match court.”
After so much heartbreak, Johanna sadly suffered even more having to pull out of her first-round match in the Australian open with an abdominal injury.
The star was forced to leave the court for a medical timeout after clearly suffering early in the second set. At the time Johanna said that she was “in shock” after obtaining the rare injury, with no indicator whether she would return.
Johanna added: “I pulled my ab, and that made it difficult for me to serve. That’s why I had to retire, basically. For now, it’s a bit – I feel like I’m in a bit of shock, so I don’t really know yet anything, and I haven’t been able to yet check in with the physios and all that, so that’s all I have for now.”
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