Johanna Konta’s upturn in form coincides with her new obssession of Bananagram

Johanna Konta revealed games of Bananagrams have been firing her up off court as she prepares to begin her Wimbledon campaign.

The 28-year-old goes into the tournament as Britain’s best hope for singles success after reaching her third grand slam semi-final at the French Open earlier this month.

The British number one enjoys the familiar routine of being able to live at home during Wimbledon but Bananagrams is a new obsession.

The word game is similar to Scrabble, and Konta said: “I’ve been playing a lot of Bananagrams with my team. We have to leave enough time before I play and the last Bananagram because things get intense. I need to calm down after that.”

Konta was introduced to the game by her hitting partner Dan Smethurst and the team have been competing against each other at it since the Italian Open in Rome last month.

“Dan brought it, he taught me, then I beat him,” said Konta with a smile.

She is enjoying her best spell of form since reaching the semi-finals here two years ago, after which she experienced burn-out and dropped to 50 in the rankings a year later.

Now back up to 19 in the world, Konta is relishing another chance to compete on the lawns of the All England Club.

She said: “I’m really happy to be home. I’m enjoying my time on the grass. I was really excited yesterday, it was the first time I came on site to hit. I was excited to put on all white. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Konta has enjoyed a lot of success on grass but her achievements on clay led her to pull out of the WTA Tour event in Nottingham, where she has twice reached the final, and she lost relatively early in both Birmingham and Eastbourne.

She insisted she is happy with her preparation, though, saying: “It’s always a very short turnaround between clay and grass, especially if you have a good clay-court season, it becomes shorter, which is a great problem, I guess.

“I played five really great matches on the surface. I think I’m as prepared as I’m going to be here. I feel pretty good.”

Konta has landed in a tricky section of the draw, with ninth seed Sloane Stephens, who she beat so impressively in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, a potential third-round opponent and two-time champion Petra Kvitova looming in the last 16.

First up, though, is a clash with Romanian qualifier Ana Bogdan, ranked 134, who Konta defeated over three sets on clay in Rabat in April.

“She played very well against me there,” said Konta. “I think what we’ve seen so many times is players can play very inspired tennis. Especially a slam, Wimbledon lends itself for inspired tennis.

“She moves well. She retrieves the ball well. She’s able to play great tennis. It will be a tough match.”