Johanna Konta insists she is excited for Wimbledon to get going next week but admitted she is unsure how she will deal with the expectations of the home crowd.
The 25-year-old has shot up the rankings over the course of the last year and will enter her home event as the 16th seed next week.
Konta, who is priced at 41.00 to win Wimbledon outright, opens her campaign against Monic Puig on Tuesday and is the first British woman to be seeded in the female singles at SW19 since Jo Durie in 1984.
The Sydney-born Brit’s biggest achievement so far came in Melbourne in January as she went on an incredible run to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open.
The world number 18 has experienced the feeling of playing on home soil recently at warm-up events in Nottingham, Birmingham and her hometown of Eastbourne.
However, Konta insists it will be a different feeling to head to Wimbledon with some hype surrounding her, as Tim Henman and Andy Murray have experienced in the past.
Konta said: “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.”
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