1983 French Open: Jo Durie

The past is indeed a foreign country. Before Johanna Konta’s exploits, the last British woman to reach a French Open semi-final was Jo Durie in 1983. Around that time, Manchester City had just been relegated, Brighton almost won the FA Cup, Aberdeen lifted a European trophy, and a female Prime Minister was about to increase her majority in the UK election.

1988 French Open Tennis

Roland Garros had been hosting the French Open championships for 60 years when the second Grand Slam event of the 1988 season began in Paris. It would be a tournament which saw the Grand Slam dream staying alive for two players, former greats falling by the wayside, a teenage invasion of the women's singles, French hopes raised and then dashed at the last, and a women's final that set records, yet one which Natasha Zvereva would probably prefer to forget.

1989 French Open: Chang v Lendl

Any British tennis enthusiasts reading this piece can probably tell you a thing or two about Grand Slam droughts. Andy Murray's success at the US Open in September 2012, ended 76-years of British hurt in the male game, so we can be forgiven for a lack of sympathy when another nation experiences what they perceive as a dry period in the sport. In 1989, America had gone a whopping five years without seeing one of their finest men lift a Grand Slam trophy, which in terms of a country with such a proud tennis history, was an age.