The British star, 24, is on the comeback trail after a back injury suffered in 2019 when she was ranked 82nd in the world.

Ahead of the Australian Open Katie reflects on life in quarantine, how the coronavirus pandemic has changed her outlook and why she’s become a volunteer with the charity Age UK.

You may be wondering how I spent my time in quarantine in Australia ahead of the first Grand Slam of the year. In a nutshell it consisted of the following: A lot of Netflix, a lot of FaceTime and a lot of yoga!

I was in quarantine for a total of 14 days, which started off with four full days inside the room. But I was lucky enough that after that period I was able to go outside for five hours a day – which was great as I was able to train and use the gym too. When I was confined to my room I was just doing anything and everything to keep busy. I did a lot of yoga and spent many hours on Zoom calls to the fitness coaches at the National Tennis Centre to stay in shape with some band workouts and stretching with foam rollers. I also spent a lot of time in bed watching Netflix – Tiny Pretty Things (a show about ballerinas) and How to Get Away with Murder have been my go to series. So much drama, but so captivating!

Returning to action last year after my back injury gave me a lot of confidence. 

I played seven or eight events and at the start, I wasn’t feeling comfortable or where I wanted to be with my game. I was putting in a lot of work but I wasn’t getting the results to show for it. But in time I was able to see some progress and I felt like I was really gaining some momentum; then the lockdown hit. It did remind me though that I can play to those high levels again and I definitely learnt a lot from last year. I know that I just need to remain patient with my game as the results will come.

Every start of the year is always a bit rocky as players return to action – but with the quarantine rules this year it definitely evens the playing field.

On the day anyone can win and that’s very exciting. I don’t have that many matches under my belt so I’m going to go in there swinging and have some fun!

It would be pretty tough to go through a pandemic and not think differently about everything.

I’ve always been really close to my family but I think not being able to see them has reiterated just important they are to me, and it puts things in perspective. A lot of people are losing their jobs, and their lives, and there are a lot more important things going on in the world right now than this tennis tournament. I feel very lucky to be in this privileged position where I can go and do my job and compete – I think people need to remind themselves of that.

I’m very close to my grandparents and my grandpa has always been my inspiration.

With the pandemic I wasn’t able to see or talk to them as much whereas normally, although I live in London, I would drive up to Leicestershire to go and see them most weekends. I would listen to my grandpa for hours and hear all of his old stories. I missed that interaction and also felt that given the fact so many older people are isolated at home because of the pandemic, I could do something to help.

With more time on my hands than usual, I wanted to try and do my bit and help out.

I got in touch with the charity Age UK and went through all of the protocols and processes to enable me to volunteer for them. I’ve been volunteering for them throughout the pandemic, and I mainly call a lovely lady called Janet, who is in her 80s. I try to speak to her as much as I can as she lives on her own as she can get quite lonely. When restrictions allowed I also tried to help with shopping for other people when I could – and I do my best to help as much as I can.