That terse exchange here:
Reporter, citing various errors Konta made over the match: "Do you not have to look at yourself a little bit, about how you cope with these big points, because it's all very well saying it has a lot to do with your opponent, but there were key points when you perhaps could have done better?"
Konta: "Is that in your professional tennis opinion?"
Reporter: "No, that's just as a watching spectator, with everyone else on Centre Court willing you on."
With that, Konta took a deep breath. Skipped a beat. Evaluated this moment, its own semi-emotional experience, this one outside the lines of the living, breathing grass court.
"I don't think you need to pick on me in a harsh way," she responded, adding, "I still believe in the tennis I play, and I still believe in the way I competed."
The reporter, already showing his cards that he was actively rooting for her whilst being a member of the not-always-impartial media, leaned into his line of discourse. But Konta was finished with the foolhardy dialogue.
"In the way you are asking your question, you are being quite disrespectful, and you are patronizing me," Konta said. "I'm a professional competitor who did her best today, and that's all there is to that."
Wimble-done.
