Johanna Konta unsure what to expect from Wimbledon crowd

A wild card entrant last year ranked outside the top 100, Konta heads into her Wimbledon opener on Tuesday against Monica Puig as the 16th seed.

She is the first British woman to be seeded for the Wimbledon singles since Jo Durie in 1984 - just the latest in a long line of landmarks.

The stand-out achievement came in Melbourne in January with her stunning run to the semi-finals of the Australian Open.

Konta has had a taste of life as the big home star, playing warm-up tournaments in Nottingham, Birmingham and her home town of Eastbourne in the run-up to Wimbledon.

But the support she is sure to receive at the All England Club, and the expectation that comes with that, will be on a different level.

Konta said of the warm-up events: "I was very much either at the club or home. Besides my parents and my team, I wasn't speaking to too many other people. But it was so nice being at home. I was lucky enough that I got to stay there for quite a period of time.

"I'm really looking forward to being here. I'm not quite sure what to expect in terms of what the crowd will be like or anything.

"I've never been in Andy's or Tim's shoes. I don't know how they experience what they experience. For me, this will be a new thing.

"I guess the less I think about it, the less of a thought process I need to go into it. I'm here to play, not to have a reaction or manage other people's expectations. I'm here for me."

One consequence of her position is a place in the upstairs locker room, reserved for the leading players.

"I've got my locker," she said. "It's nice and quiet. I think that's the biggest difference as of now. I'm sure it can get busy, as well. But downs tairs is a lot busier as there's a lot more players around.

"I think it was more just being excited to see if there's any difference in the locker rooms. But the showers are the same size. The towels look the same.

"I think once that initial excitement, 'Oh, it's something new', (subsides) then you start thinking about things that are more important."

British fans certainly have reason to be excited about Konta's chances given her form in Eastbourne.

The 25-year-old defeated two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova on her way to a first WTA Tour semi-final before losing narrowly to Karolina Pliskova.

Konta, of course, is happy to go into a grand slam with a run of wins behind her but would not have been panicking had she lost in the first round.

"It would be hypocritical of me to say, 'Oh, yes, I feel more confident', because going into Australia, I'd actually lost two first rounds," she said.

"I think it's more about not so much the wins, but how you feel in the matches that you've played.

"I feel like I've had some really good matches against some really good players. Whether I've won some, lost some, also having time on the grass, I feel very lucky to have had that. I just feel happy that I'm healthy."

One note of caution is that Puig also reached the semi-finals on the south coast and will be a tricky opponent, while standing in Konta's path should she come through that are the likes of Eugenie Bouchard, Eastbourne champion Dominika Cibulkova and third seed Agnieszka Radwanska.