After contracting Covid-19, the 30-year-old battled an abdominal injury at the start of the season and was forced to miss both Wimbledon and the Olympics.
After withdrawing from the US Open, Konta only competed in one major tournament this year, Roland-Garros, when she was defeated in the first round by Romanian Sorana Cîrstea.
The British star has acknowledged feeling "lightheaded" following matches and gets heart palpitations for which she has no explanation. “The first time this happened was in Birmingham in 2017; the second time was in Beijing in 2018. The third time was three months ago when I was doing my training block on clay at my home in London. So I wouldn't say that there is a massive common denominator. There have been stressful situations and stress-free situations.” The former world number four acknowledged that dealing with the disappointment of missing major tournaments was difficult, but said there were more important things in life.
"It was very difficult,” she stressed. “There was nothing good and nothing fun about having Covid and having to miss Wimbledon and the Olympics. There is no getting around that. However, I consider myself a happy, positive and pragmatic person, and I like to take a step back and look at the good things that I have in my life… And at the end of the day, I looked at my life and everything is fine.”
Konta's ranking has dropped to 112th in the world as a result of her absence from competition, prompting speculation that she may consider retiring. At this point, it's unlikely that the 30-year-old will make the cut for the Australian Open next year, so she'll have to qualify if she wants to play in the main event.
The competition closes on December 6th, and Konta's staff has stated that she will make a decision soon. Apart from her personal health, Konta may have to decide whether or not to get the Covid vaccine if she hasn't already. The British woman's immunization status is unknown after she revealed in the summer that she had not taken advantage of the opportunity to acquire the first dosage. Konta has been wary of speaking too much on the matter for fear of being chastised.
"This is a tricky thing to talk about because it's a very inflammatory subject and there's no real right answer," she said. "I don't want to talk about it because I wouldn't be able to get my point across without it being a case for argument."