Martina Navratilova column: Pressure is all on Venus so forget the occasion, Jo, and just play your game

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Johanna Konta is a smart tennis player - one of the more cerebral players on the tour - but sometimes that can get in the way and you overthink things.

If I could give her one piece of advice, it would be to stop thinking and just hit the ball. At the end of the day, as a tennis player you just have to hit the bloody ball, so just simplify things.

Actually, going into this match will be easier for Jo. Sure, there’s the British public and the whole history aspect but she’s not expected to win the match, having gone as far as people envisaged her doing.

If she was facing, say, Magdalena Rybarikova, it would be completely different because Jo would be expected to win that match but, right now, she’ll feel relieved, she’s done well already and now she can go for it.

And the other thing is, play Venus and not the match, not the fact it’s a Wimbledon semi-final.

For example, for my Wimbledon semi-final in 1978 against Evonne Goolagong I made sure I was playing her and not thinking about the fact it was the semi-final of Wimbledon.

This is a completely different match for Jo compared to the Simona Halep one. In that match, she had to make herself go for the shots, with Venus that’s different. Against her, you have to go for the big shots because, if you don’t, she will and in turn make you pay.

So, it takes the pressure off in a way, while, for Venus, the pressure is on because she knows, particularly with her sister Serena probably back next year, this is perhaps her last chance to win Wimbledon.

Johanna Konta's Wimbledon 2017 - In pictures

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That was my thinking in 1994. I knew at that point I was going to retire at the end of that season but the nerves were enormous as a result. I could barely take the rackets out of my bag, aware that it was my last final and there was no coming back from this point.

Then again, saying this might be her last chance, we thought she was done five years ago, so she could be here five years from now. Right now, she’s healthy and everything’s working.

Whatever the case, Venus cannot think “this might be my last chance” and, in any case, I don’t get the sense she entirely knows when she plans to retire. Were she to win the title on Saturday, what better way and moment to end your career?

The way she’s played at the age of 37 is very impressive and, even more so, with the car incident that happened about a month ago.

But tennis has the ability to constantly be a great escape from life, and it has to be. Tennis is so explosive that you have to be in the moment.

When things are going well, you’re so happy and think on top of everything, I get to play tennis. And when things are really, really awful, you’re like, “Great, I get to play tennis”.

Johanna Konta - 10 style moments

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You can still play, it’s not affecting your ability to still do your job which you love doing and it’s a great opportunity to escape from whatever might be happening. It’s just you and the ball.

Jo can win this match. She served brilliantly against Halep - that first set is by far the best I’ve seen anyone serve percentage wise. I think she missed just two first serves and, yet, still lost the set.

Then there’s the fact that her second serve is not that attackable but Venus is a prowler out there who loves to pounce.

I’d advise Jo to use the body serve. Venus loves to move into the ball and be on the stretch. In truth, nobody likes the ball coming at them but particularly long-limbed people such as Venus. Other than that, Jo must stick to her game. I like that even when she misses, she keeps going for the shots. She’s not missing wildly, she doesn’t over hit it and that’s her game.

Sure, she got nervous on a couple of forehands but she’ll still go for it. The one thing she needs to do is to get the ball in on the big points, on the break points. She hit a lot of returns deep on those break points against Halep and she cannot afford to do that against Venus. Her thinking has to be to just make Venus play.

Playing it safe is not the way to go at Wimbledon. Halep was two points away from winning that match but went even more defensive and that cost her. You don’t win Slams like that.

Jo has been here before, in the sense of the semi-final stage at the Australian Open last year. There she lost in straight sets against Angelique Kerber, the eventual winner, but that experience should be helpful to her.

As I said, she’s a cerebral player who I don’t see making the same mistake twice, so whatever happened there - whether it was mental or preparation wise or whatever - she will have figured out what went wrong and do it differently.

It’s going to be an incredibly tight match. For me, it’s Venus by a slight edge.

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