Emotional Boulter won’t use her court snub as an excuse after 51-minute thrashing

AT the centre of attention and on the fringes of the grounds, Katie Boulter’s heartening charge at Wimbledon came to a subdued conclusion yesterday. The defeat on her big day will sting, though the manner of it will hurt considerably more.

It was brutal and underwhelming, decisive and magnificent, depending on which side of the divide you called for — the plucky underdog from Britain or the plucky underdog from France. Sadly for home interests, Harmony Tan was relentlessly good and Boulter had nothing left to give.

She was crushed, pushed off the rollercoaster in 51 minutes by a quirky player having the time of her life. We can make the argument that this third-round match would have been tighter, a little more balanced, if Boulter had been given an appointment on Centre Court rather than Court 2, as seemed appropriate after she beat last year’s finalist Karolina Pliskova to reach the third round. But significantly different? Different enough to sway the result? Not many would fight for that hill on the basis of how convincingly Tan, the slayer of Serena Williams in a first-round classic, won this match.

Boulter, here on a wild card and on her deepest run at a Slam, didn’t clutch for any of those excuses publicly, though privately the world No 118 may have felt something else.

Her explanation for how it all fell apart so quickly was rooted more in physical and mental exhaustion, which factors in the grief she has experienced since her grandmother passed away on Tuesday. That and the ceaseless slog of life for a touring pro outside the top 100, a grind including 10 matches in the three weeks leading up to these championships.

‘I may have seen it coming a little bit,’ she said. ‘I started to reach my emotional and physical point where I was struggling a little.

‘I think I’m just a little bit emotionally drained, if I’m honest. I’ve been working so hard for a long period of time, getting through injuries, and I’m here and played some amazing tennis week in, week out.

‘This week has probably been the tipping point. I’ve played some great matches. I was probably tired going into this tournament and I’m a little bit mentally tapped out.’

The tank was empty at precisely the wrong time. As for what uplift she may have felt with the larger crowds of Centre or Court 1, rather than the 11am shift next to Church Road, she was seemingly magnanimous, though it was interesting as a counterpoint to hear Tan indicate it was a relief to be on a ‘small’ arena.

‘You’re supposed to put the best matches that are out there on Centre Court and on Court 1,’ said Boulter. ‘We’ve got Iga Swiatek who is out there on a winning streak [her 37-match run ended last night]. I would never expect to be put ahead of players like that.

‘Whether I was playing on Centre Court or Court No1 or Court 20, I’m not sure if that’s what was going to get me through today.’

The last point was about right. It should be stressed at this juncture that Boulter has had a fine tournament, which follows so many difficulties with injuries in her career. But this was a hard loss nonetheless.

The 25-year-old had her serve broken four times, didn’t force so much as a break point of her own, and was repeatedly sent into a fluster with Tan’s spins, ingenuity and accuracy — the latter’s 16 winners were offset by just five unforced errors. The world No 115, who next faces the 20th seed Amanda Anisimova, is a danger to anyone at this stage of her Wimbledon debut.

She controlled this one from the very first point, which Boulter shanked long off a forehand. Boulter then snapped a string and had her serve broken in the next game, and lost the set 6-1 to an ace. That kind of day.

Tan broke immediately in the second set and again for 4-1. At the decisive point in that fifth game she had chased down a lob and retrieved with a tweener before celebrating by raising her arms in the air.

The match was as good as over and everyone knew it. Her entourage could be seen laughing at the procession of it all and it was over in a blink thereafter.

The kicker for Boulter is that for all her progress this week, she won’t get any ranking points owing to Wimbledon’s stance on Russia. That would have helped towards automatic qualification for the US Open.

‘I’ll be ready for qualifiers this year,’ Boulter said. ‘You never know, hopefully I can do what Emma [Raducanu] did last year.’