I could barely get through the days, let alone play tennis . . .
Boulter’s illness cost her but now she’s bullish about reaching the very top
TWO years ago, Katie Boulter, by her own admission, had trouble making it through the day as she struggled with serious fatigue and took a year away from tennis.
So it marks quite the turnaround that the 21-year-old will head to Wimbledon with a win over a Grand Slam champion and nearing the top 100 in the world.
One of six British women to receive wild cards to the main draw at SW19, Boulter is brimming with confidence after beating 2011 US Open champion Sam Stosur at last week’s Nottingham Open.
‘You don’t start believing until you do actually win those matches,’ she says. A lack of self-belief held her back on her senior Wimbledon debut last year, when she lost to America’s Christina McHale in three sets in the first round.
‘I didn’t feel I had the full belief behind me to win the match,’ she says. ‘I knew my game was there and my game can beat her, but there’s always that one per cent which I doubted myself a little bit.’
Despite her new- found confidence, it is clear that the illness that threatened to cut short her career in 2015 still leaves its mark.
In her most candid interview to date, she opened up about the depths of despair she experienced when she was sidelined for almost a year, and her bold ambitions of climbing to the top of the world rankings. ‘Two years ago now I was out for a year, so I didn’t play tennis at all,’ she says. ‘That was because I was physically ill, I was very fatigued. It was difficult for me to get through the days. So I have to be very careful with my body and how far I push it.’
She might be through the worst of it, but the risk of the illness returning means she still cannot train as intensively as her rivals. ‘ I still don’t pl ay a f ul l schedule. I do as much as I pos- sibly can. I have one long session in the morning and try to do some specifics in the afternoon.
‘But a lot of tennis players do two full sessions in the day, they do an hour and a half or two hours in the morning and the afternoon.
‘Finally this year I am able to do some work off-court in the gym, which I haven’t done before.
‘It has made a huge impact in my game and I’m feeling a lot stronger and better about myself.’
Slipping under the radar in the build-up to SW19 will not be possible for the Leicester-born hopeful.
Instead, her face will soon be plastered on advertising hoardings across London as part of her role as Nike’s poster girl. The spotlight does not bother her, as she declares she ‘feels no pressure’ and this is all part of her ambition to be ‘British No 1, and then world No 1’.
Like millions of young people across the country — including a number of top tennis players — Boulter fills her evenings watching ITV2’s reality show Love Island.
But she has ruled out a romance of her own for now, insisting she just doesn’t have time. ‘I am going to have that for a little bit of time,’ she says. ‘I don’t really have time for it. It doesn’t bother me at all.’
Boulter is a rare thing in British tennis, someone who has benefited almost solely from the domestic set- up. Unlike 19- year- old Katie Swan, who has trained for a number of years in America, and 20-yearold Gabriella Taylor, who is based in Barcelona, Boulter has relied on the British system since she started in juniors.
And she credits the LTA for getting her back to a position where she can hold her own against the likes of Stosur. ‘I feel like I am in great hands with them. There’s a lot of sports science in the LTA and I wouldn’t be where I am right now if it wasn’t for them,’ she says.
Sports science might be one thing that will help her as she seeks to make her mark at Wimbledon in just over a week’s time, but she will also be relying on motivational notes in her kit bag, just as she did last year.
‘You deserve this — focus,’ one said, while another read: ‘ Trust yourself.’ A third message told her to ‘show how much you want it’.
Having climbed more than 900 world ranking places since returning from her illness, there is no denying she wants it.