LIGHTNING BOULT
From tears to cheers as Katie sends GB back to the big time
With a hot water bottle wedged down the back of her skirt and raw memories of the day before, you feared for Katie Boulter as she tried to close out this Fed Cup promotion match.
it was 4-1 in the deciding set to the 22-year- old from Leicestershire and 2-1 in the overall match with one more rubber required to gain promotion.
Boulter was bending over at the changeover, trying to keep not just her back but also her mind loose amid a febrile atmosphere. Less than 24 hours previously she had led the visitors’ No 1 Yulia Putintseva 4-0 in the third but ended up falling agonisingly, tearfully short having had three match points.
this combination of an aching body and the dread of very recent history repeating itself would have cowed many, but this year Boulter has suggested she is made of the right stuff.
She finished it off 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 against Zarina Diyas, a player good enough to have twice reached the last-16 of Wimbledon. A 3-1 victory was clinched and a place among the top 16 World Group nations in the premier event of women’s team tennis was secured.
‘it was hurting a bit yesterday,’ said Boulter, joking that the water bottle made ‘all the difference’ to her back. ‘But it’s what we have to do, it’s all part of tennis. i’m always going to fight and get up for the next match. i’m proud of myself bouncing back the way i did.’
Some players wilt under the pressure of team competition, especially when everything is playing out in an arena full of passionate fans.
Others flourish in this environment and — with a record of 5- 1 in singles team play this year, winning all four of her matches in Bath during the group stage — the statuesque Boulter appears to belong in the later category. When she finally won yesterday it was with a thumping ace that sparked a court invasion by her joyous team-mates, in huge contrast to her tearful exit from the court the night before. that was enough to finish off the excellent work of Jo Konta, the player of the tie with two comefrom-behind victories. it also clinched the most satisfyi n g of victories for captain Anne Keothavong in her own backyard. She grew up in the locality of the Olympic Park, first discovering tennis on the public courts of hackney before going on to be the British No 1 herself.
No wonder she was delighted, having taken GB to a level reached this decade by her opposite number Leon Smith in the equivalent Davis Cup, jet propelled by Andy Murray.
Keothavong especially looks to have mastered the inexact science of when to speak at changeovers and when to retreat, literally standing back at times to give Konta space. ‘i’m ecstatic, totally in awe of these women,’ she said. ‘Jo stayed incredibly calm, she knows what she is doing.
‘With Katie, to have had three match points for what would have been one of her biggest career wins... tennis can be cruel. She left here last night past 9.30pm and was back here less than 12 hours later. Most people would have had a sleepless night but the way she managed everything against another great player was just too good.’
Boulter definitely has some star quality about her, and in time ought to move well above her current ranking of 86.
She could still get more out of her serve from her height of nearly six feet, to add to a natural weight of groundstroke that constantly caused problems for Diyas.
Konta extended her Fed Cup singles record to an impressive 20-7, with her victory over Putintseva surely ranking among the best.
GB’s top player looked in serious trouble when she went 4-1 down in the decider. Putintseva had displayed her supreme scrapping skills against Boulter but this time it was she who cracked as Konta rode the support of the crowd to level for 5- 5. A factor, it later emerged, was the banging of the
drum from the musical section of the Kazakh support, which Putintseva actually asked to quieten down in the second set when she became overwrought and summoned the doctor to test her blood pressure.
Otherwise the visiting trumpeter contributed much to another weekend which showed that team events reach parts that regular tennis cannot.
Konta broke to love at the end to win 4- 6, 6- 2, 7- 5, having managed to outcompete one of the most pugnacious fighters on the women’s tour.
there have been glimpses this season of the form that took gB’s prized asset to no 4 four in the world 18 months ago, and she will be heading back in that direction if she can display such fortitude when returning to solo pursuits.
ironically, Putintseva once made moves to try to settle in Britain and compete for gB, before making the switch from Moscow to play under the Kazakh flag.
Whether that would have contributed much to the undoubted spirit that Keothavong seems to have built up among her players is very much open to question.