Katie Boulter has become only the second British woman to win a WTA 500 event since the category was introduced following her fairytale run at the San Diego Open.
The 27-year-old clawed her way back from a set down in Sunday’s final to bear Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 5-7, 6-2, 6-2. Boulter struggled at times with her serve and produced 13 doubles faults but managed to weather the storm to claim the biggest title of her career to date. Kostyuk was also tentative behind her serve with the Brit breaking her seven times en route to victory.
Boulter has now recorded 14 wins over top 50 players during her career with five of those victories occurring in San Diego. Besides Kostyuk, she also beat Lesia Tsurenko, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Donna Vekic and Emma Navarro.
“I don’t know what just happened,” Boulter said afterwards. “This week has been very, very special for so many different reasons. This one is pretty amazing, I’ve worked very hard for it, I played some incredible tennis all week.
“Today was a complete battle, with myself as well, because I was a little bit nervous. But I managed to get over the line, and that I’m very proud of.
“A lot of it was about me staying as tough as I possibly could mentally, and I managed to keep my cool and actually kind of went within myself and calmed myself down a lot. I think that really helped me, and then I started to relax and play through shots a little bit more.”
The victory has elevated Boulter up the rankings to a career-best of 27th in the world. It is the first time she has cracked the world’s top 30. She is the lowest-ranked player to win a WTA 500 event since 2021 when Liudmila Samsonova won the Berlin crown whilst ranked outside the top 100.
Meanwhile, Kostyuk has risen to 32nd in the WTA rankings which are four places below her best. The sixth seed dedicated her runner-up trophy to her family in Ukraine.
“First of all everyone in the stands. Slava Ukraini. I don’t want to make it too sad, I want to say thank you to my family back home.” She said during the trophy presentation.
“It’s been a difficult last couple of nights for Ukraine. My family is in Ukraine right now. I don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow. There’s no one who sacrificed more for my career than them. I want to dedicate this small trophy to them.”
Boulter has won two WTA titles so far in her career. Her first triumph was at the Nottingham Open last year.
