Katie Boulter fights back from the brink to topple ninth seed Paula Badosa
At the start of a tension-filled final set on Centre Court, when she desperately needed to showcase the best of her abilities, Katie Boulter’s game was in freefall.Her rapid‑fire start had given way to painful service issues and her unforced error count was growing with every point.The 28-year-old Briton responded to those difficulties, however, with a demonstration of her resilience, digging deep at the end of three testing sets to produce one of the best wins of her career by toppling the ninth seed, Paula Badosa, to reach the second round of Wimbledon with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory.The win marks the fourth top-10 victory of Boulter’s career and her second at a grand slam tournament following her dramatic three-set win against the then No 7, Karolina Pliskova, on the same court in 2022.“I think I got one of my first against Pliskova on this court,” Boulter said of her top-10 wins.
“The moment I stepped out here, it just reminded me of that from the first ball,I feel I have some really good juju,I played some really good stuff so I’m happy to be through to the next round,”Having spent so much of her career competing on the lower level ITF circuit, Boulter has taken her game to a different level over the past few years, reaching a career‑high ranking of No 23 and winning three WTA titles, but a deep run at a grand slam tournament has continued to evade her,This victory is the perfect start as she attempts to make her mark at her home grand slam championship.
She will face Argentina’s Solana Sierra, a lucky loser, in the second round after the world No 101 defeated Olivia Gadecki on Monday,A year ago Boulter entered Wimbledon in the best form of her life, seeded at the All England Club for the first time in her career, but she did not handle that new position well and endured a painful second-round defeat against her compatriot Harriet Dart,After struggling with a foot injury earlier in the year, her form has not matched her high ambitions but she believes she has the weapons to challenge all the top players on grass,After waiting more than four hours for Carlos Alcaraz to close out his five‑set win against Fabio Fognini, Boulter and Badosa did not begin their match until 6:40pm, an astonishingly late start for the second match on day one,The British No 2 opened up the match serving at an incredibly high level, landing 82% of first serves in her opening six games and hitting her spots brilliantly.
She backed up her excellent serving by searching furiously for the first strike in every point and dominated the baseline with her supreme forehand.Just as everything seemed to be flowing, momentum shifted suddenly at the start of the second set.Having struck just one double fault in the entire match, Boulter’s serve fell apart.At 1-2, 30-30, she struck three double faults in the final four points of the game to meekly hand over Badosa’s first break.Her serve deteriorating, the rest of her game followed suit and unforced errors streamed from her racket.
Across the net, her opponent dug into the rallies, giving nothing away as she maintained her depth and consistency, forcing as many errors from Boulter as she could,Those two sets perfectly encapsulated Boulter’s strengths and limitations,Although she possesses massive weapons in her serve and forehand, which can trouble many of the best defences in the world, her second serve can also be one of her biggest weaknesses,When things are not perfectly in sync, she can struggle to adjust and problem-solve with her one-note attacking style,Sign up to The RecapThe best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend’s actionafter newsletter promotionFor a while, it seemed like she could not escape those limitations.
She opened the final set with another double fault to offer Badosa a fifth break point in the opening game, which the Spaniard took,Boulter, though, kept on fighting,After immediately retrieving the break for 1-1, she re-established rhythm behind her first serve and she marched through her service games throughout the final set,At 5-4 with everything on the line and the Centre Court crowd urging her on, Boulter made her move, boldly attacking Badosa’s serve as she closed out one of the most important victories of her career,“Oh God, I was bricking it completely,” she said.
“I’ve played a lot of matches recently where I started out great but then kind of let it slip.I actually played one at Queen’s [Club], which hurt me a lot.I just tried to compete today, fight, hope for the best, hope she missed and just kept pushing myself to be positive, go after the ball and make it happen.Today it actually happened so I’m thrilled.”
Queues and winning Raducanu make Wimbledon feel even more British than usual
It might sound implausible, but this was a day where Wimbledon, that most quintessential of British sporting institutions, felt even more British than usual. The queues were lengthy, the weather hitting record-breaking heights. And over a glorious day of action, the All England Club reverberated to the rare sound of unheralded British players shattering expectations – and ripping up the record books.By the time Katie Boulter left Centre Court with the cheers still ringing in her ears after defeating the No 9 seed Paula Badosa, there had been a magnificent seven British victories on day one – the most in a single day in the open era.On Centre Court David Beckham and Princess Beatrice, sporting and actual royalty respectively, watched on
Katie Boulter fights back from the brink to topple ninth seed Paula Badosa
At the start of a tension-filled final set on Centre Court, when she desperately needed to showcase the best of her abilities, Katie Boulter’s game was in freefall. Her rapid‑fire start had given way to painful service issues and her unforced error count was growing with every point.The 28-year-old Briton responded to those difficulties, however, with a demonstration of her resilience, digging deep at the end of three testing sets to produce one of the best wins of her career by toppling the ninth seed, Paula Badosa, to reach the second round of Wimbledon with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory.The win marks the fourth top-10 victory of Boulter’s career and her second at a grand slam tournament following her dramatic three-set win against the then No 7, Karolina Pliskova, on the same court in 2022.“I think I got one of my first against Pliskova on this court,” Boulter said of her top-10 wins
Carlos Alcaraz escapes first-round scare as Fabio Fognini tests his limits
Carlos Alcaraz said he was proud to have squeezed into the second round after struggling with his nerves and the heat on Centre Court during his dramatic five-set win against Fabio Fognini on Monday.In searing temperatures, Alcaraz started his pursuit of a third consecutive Wimbledon title by outlasting the veteran Italian 7-5, 6-7 (1), 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 after 4hr 37min on-court.“I’m getting mature and I know how to deal with some situations,” the Spaniard said. “I always say that the champions always find a way. I really want to see myself in that [list] of champions
Emma Raducanu too strong for teenager Mimi Xu in British battle
“Come on Britain!” echoed through the sweltering 32C heat on No 1 Court as Emma Raducanu defeated Mimi Xu in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. The all-British clash featured two players – attired similarly in matching outfits and golf visors – who captivated the home crowd.While Raducanu has been a fan favourite since her fairytale 2021 US Open triumph, the grand slam debutant Xu, ranked No 300 in the world, has impressed in junior circuits and shown significant promise on the senior tour.“It was an interesting dynamic today,” Raducanu said. “It is really awkward playing a Brit, especially someone younger
Farewell tradition, hello robots: Wimbledon adjusts to life without line judges
Sometimes progress registers simply as absence, and so it was on the opening day of Wimbledon this year when the pursuit of greater accuracy led to the disappearance of the tournament’s famous line judges.Electronic line calls are now in operation in SW19, bringing the championships into line with the grand slam tournaments in Melbourne and New York and also the ATP Tour. The French Open still uses line judges. But the shift to camera‑based, AI‑enhanced decision-making cuts deeper at Wimbledon, where up to 300 line judges have been a colourful part of the tournament’s ensemble cast for the past 147 years.With protests outside the gates (albeit with tongue in cheek) and ambivalence among fans, there were also unexpected reactions from players to the changes
Sibley hits 305 as Surrey break run record: county cricket day two – as it happened
On and on went big bad Dom. Past 200, past his highest previous score, past 250 and, with a sprinted single that left him spreadeagled in the Oval dust, to 300.Sibley clambered to his feet, raised his bat and soaked up the warm applause for a mammoth effort of concentration: 28 fours, two sixes and 472 balls of toil as the mercury rose. He joins an elite club of triple-centurions for Surrey at the Oval, in Mark Ramprakash, Kevin Pietersen, Bobby Abel, Jack Hobbs and Tom Hayward. At the other end, Dan Lawrence shimmied 174 and Will Jacks 119 as Surrey set their record first-class score, finally putting Durham out of their misery at 820 for nine
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