HISTORIC DAY AS BOULTER ‘WINS’ TWICE!
Next time, Katie Boulter will know what to do if she gets into a deciding tiebreak, having carved a small piece of Australian Open history when making the second round.
And should she get close enough to make it happen in her next match against Aryna Sabalenka, we will really know we have a player on our hands.
the muscular world No 11 is widely tipped as the new big thing in women’s tennis, and if the British No 2 can somehow run her deep into a third set, it will be quite an achievement.
She has already attracted attention, scoring an outstanding 6-0, 4-6, 7-6 win over Melbourne specialist ekaterina Makarova, which came with a dramatic ending when she forgot the sudden-death tiebreak format, this match being the first ever to require one.
the Leicestershire 22-year-old thought she had won the match when she hit a winner to go 7-4 up and raised her knee while fistpumping in celebration.
But she had overlooked the fact that, this year, you have to get to ten if the tiebreak is in the deciding set, and she had to mentally reset before finishing it off 10-6.
‘I was in the moment and I kind of forgot that it was first to ten,’ she admitted. ‘It’s very tough to turn around — because you’ve just released and you think you’ve won the match — to get back to work and find a way. I am pretty proud of myself for digging deep.
‘I would have been devastated had I not. I can laugh it off now, but at least I know the rule, so it definitely won’t happen again.’ Contrastingly, it all ended in tears for compatriots Harriet Dart and Heather Watson. Dart, who had done admirably well to come through qualifying, found her serve crunched by Maria Sharapova and she was handed the dreaded double bagel, 6-0, 6-0.
Watson was also in tears as she contemplated what is now a serious career slump that sees her outside the world’s top 100. In the course of losing 6-1, 6-2 to 31st seed Petra Martic, she needed to call the doctor out on court.
‘I have been feeling anxious, wanting to do well. It was hot out there and you cannot be tense,’ she said. ‘I felt faint and a bit dizzy on court. It happens quite a lot, especially in these conditions and when it’s high stress.’
More broadly, she admitted: ‘I cannot continue like this. tennis is lots of ups and downs. At the moment, it’s not clicking. I didn’t enjoy that today, that’s for sure.’