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Johanna Konta withdrawal in Moscow means she narrowly misses out on WTA Finals - again

Johanna Konta has withdrawn from Kremlin Cup in Moscow with ongoing foot problem - Getty Images AsiaPac
Johanna Konta has withdrawn from Kremlin Cup in Moscow with ongoing foot problem - Getty Images AsiaPac

It’s official: Johanna Konta has narrowly failed to qualify for the WTA Finals in Singapore for the second successive year, after she announced her withdrawal from next week’s Kremlin Cup in Moscow with an ongoing foot problem.

In one sense, Konta’s luck could hardly have been worse, in the sense that Caroline Garcia pulled off an unprecedented feat – winning Wuhan and Shanghai back to back – to overtake her by a mere 185 points, right at the last minute.

From a different perspective, though, Konta is the author of her own misfortune. It seemed that her Singapore debut was a near-certainty when she reached the Wimbledon semi-final in July. All she had to do to seal it was to avoid a catastrophic decline over the remaining three months of the season. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened, as she won just two matches in that time, both of them in Cincinnati.

We saw a similar pattern last year. Konta entered the final week of the regular season in ninth place on the WTA leaderboard – but effectively eighth, because Serena Williams, the world No 1 at that time, had made it clear that she would not be playing in Singapore.

If you keep finding yourself on the edge of qualification, there is always the chance that one strong late run from one of your rivals – armed with the psychological advantage of being the hunter rather than the hunted – will knock you off the invitation list. Last year it was Svetlana Kuznetsova who won the Kremlin Cup, thus evicting Konta on the eve of Singapore itself. The switch came so late that the WTA had to source a private air taxi to ferry Kuznetsova around the world.

Caroline Garcia - Credit: Getty Images
Caroline Garcia will take the eighth spot in Singapore Credit: Getty Images

This is unlikely to be the end of Konta’s season, as her foot is not thought to be a long-term issue. She could still opt to go to Singapore as an alternate, hoping that one of the other women is unable to play because of an injury of their own. (This option is well remunerated, even if she remains on the sidelines, though you have to play to collect any rankings points.)

Or she could play the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, China – a sort of “next eight” event that is open to the women who just fail to qualify for Singapore. Last year, Konta reached the semi-finals of Zhuhai, where she lost to Elina Svitolina. Should she reverse her recent form slump and win that event, she would accrue 700 points.

Virginia Wade remains the last British woman to qualify for the WTA's end-of-season finals event, all the way back in 1980.