British number one Johanna Konta says she received more recognition for her exchange with a journalist at Wimbledon last month than she got for reaching the semi-finals at SW19 two years ago.

Konta, 28, was frustrated by questions about her mentality after her quarter-final defeat by Barbora Strycova.

The incident in July sparked fierce debate but Konta says she tried to ignore the reaction.

“It’s hard to not notice the traction it got,” she said before the US Open.

“I was walking down the street and one woman shouted down from a balcony, ‘Good on you’,” she said.

Keen to put the exchange with the journalist behind her, a laughing Konta added: “That was a new experience.

“I got a lot of recognition after that. I got more recognition after this Wimbledon than 2017 when I had a massive viewership for my quarter-final so I don’t know why.”

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Konta, speaking before her first-round match against Daria Kasatkina at Flushing Meadows on Monday, has had opening-round defeats in Toronto and Cincinnati since Wimbledon.

The US Open is the only Grand Slam where she has not reached the semi-finals, having gone as far as the last 16 in 2015 and 2016.

“If you take a zoomed in look at it I haven’t played many matches since Wimbledon. However, if you take the season as a whole I’ve played over 50 matches,” said Konta, who reached clay-court finals in Rabat and Rome earlier this year.

“So I’ve played a lot of matches and won quite a lot of them as well, which is a good position to be in.”