On the final point of her quarter-final win over Donna Vekic in San Diego last week, Katie Boulter was scrambling. She was dragged from sideline to sideline, lunging at every ball, desperately trying to stay in the point. After 24 brutal groundstrokes between them, Boulter chased down a drop shot, which she brushed aside with a searing forehand winner to close out the victory.
A year ago, it would have been difficult to imagine Boulter winning such points against top opposition. While the potency of her serve and clean, vicious groundstrokes have never been in doubt, whenever she was forced out of position at the highest level, her defensive weaknesses were laid bare.
The way she closed out Vekic, though, was symbolic of the continuous growth that has afforded the 27-year-old by far the biggest achievement of her career. On Sunday she finished an incredible week in San Diego by defeating Marta Kostyuk 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 to win her first ever WTA 500 title. Boulter now sits at No 27 in the WTA rankings, having risen from her previous career high of No 49. She heads to Indian Wells, one of the biggest events on the calendar, as a seeded player and categorically one of the best in the world.
Boulter’s rise is testament to her perseverance and patience. It has already been around five years since she broke into the Top 100 and began to compete on the WTA Tour before promptly suffering the misfortune of a stress fracture in her back. She was forced off the tour for seven months, falling back out of the Top 100 and as low as No 441 in February 2020.