British No 1 Johanna Konta has said that she is looking to “adapt well” to grass and has brushed off worries about overplaying ahead of Wimbledon.
Konta is preparing for her second tournament of the grass-court season after arriving in Birmingham straight from Nottingham, where she lost to world No 70 Donna Vekic in just under two and a half hours.
Konta’s final warm-up event takes place in her home town of Eastbourne next week, and good runs at all three would mean a heavy workload ahead of Wimbledon.
“I think everybody looks to try and get, or most people, as much time as possible on the surface heading into Wimbledon,” said the 26-year-old, who is one of the favourites to win her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon.
“It’s a short season so, for me, I’m just looking to play as many matches on the grass and look to adapt well.
“I train very hard to be able to withstand a lot of matches. But, if we are at that stage, I’m pretty sure that’s also a very good problem.”
Konta was the top seed in Nottingham and had looked poised to win her first title on home soil before Vekic turned the final around to shock the world No 7.
Konta was happy with her first week on grass, saying: “I felt I adapted well each match.
“I think I actually played a lot of really good grass-court players as well. So I’m quite pleased on how I was able to deal with some of the challenges they were throwing at me.
“And I think overall it was also nice to play a few matches in succession. I hadn’t done that in a little while. So overall I felt it was a positive week for me and also a great week from which to learn from.”
Konta certainly looked a lot more at home on the grass than during the clay-court season, where she only won three matches in five events and was knocked out in the opening round of the French Open.
And the 26-year-old is enjoying more than just the change of surface.
She said: “I get a massive kick out of not having to get on a plane and just get to drive to events. Just to put myself in the car, not have to pack a specific way to meet airline regulations or anything, just actually throw stuff in the car and drive 50 minutes and here I am at the next event. That’s pretty good.”
Fourth seed Konta begins her campaign in Birmingham against Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine on Tuesday.
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