Katie Boulter battled hard with Elena Rybakina and she emerged from the longest day of her career with her greatest victory, a special performance from the British No 3 yielding a 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 win over the world No 2 and Australian Open champion.
Emma Raducanu was also a winner on Friday, defeating Sorana Cirstea, the seventh seed and one of the most in-form players in the world this year 6-4, 6-2 to return to the quarter-finals on the grass courts of the Queen’s Club. However, the winner of her quarter-final match against Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova will be forced to play two matches on Saturday after the congested, rain-delayed schedule ran out of time on Friday afternoon and their match was postponed at the end of the day.
Boulter has enjoyed a few big wins in her career, her previous best win by ranking being a win over the WTA No 5 Jessica Pegula, but this is the biggest of her career. This is also the highest-ranked opponent any British player has defeated since Johanna Konta upset Simona Halep in 2017. It was also Boulter’s second win of the day, having defeated Jaqueline Cristian of Romania 6-1, 6-3 at the start of the day.
“Honestly, I’m not really sure what to say, but I really feel like this win definitely goes towards the crowd that got me through it tonight and stayed out here,” Boulter said. “The atmosphere was absolutely incredible. I just tried to tell myself to keep backing myself and go for it. If you don’t go for it, then you’re going to regret the things that you’ve worked so hard for.
“I’m standing here a winner, and it’s because I trusted my game, I trusted my coaching team, who were always with me and pushing me. So yeah, I’m so proud of today.”
After the first 10 games, Rybakina had conceded just four points on her serve in five games, facing no break points. Nearly every Boulter service game, meanwhile, played out as an epic struggle, with Rybakina failing to take any of the nine break points she generated.
The complexion of the match completely changed from nowhere. At 5-5, Rybakina fell apart in a stream of unforced errors, double-faulting on break point to hand over the break. Another service game followed, Boulter then stepped up and landed just enough first serves to see out. Early in set two, Boulter’s run of good fortune finally ran out on her serve as Rybakina rolled through the second set, but the Briton regrouped admirably at the beginning of set three, her improved serving allowing her to finally build rhythm in her service games.
In a match between two tall, big servers desperate to take the first strike on every point, Boulter was far bolder and cleaner down the stretch. She clinched the best win of her career with some of her very best tennis, emphatically serving out the match.
Earlier on Friday, Raducanu had put together her best performance of the season to defeat Cirstea. Rakhimova, meanwhile, defeated Britain’s Harriet Dart 5-7, 6-1, 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals. The winner on Saturday will face the 18-year-old sixth seed Iva Jovic, who secured her first top five win over Amanda Anisimova, the second seed and world No 5.
Rain throughout the day on Thursday meant all matches had been postponed, leading to a manic Friday with all second-round victors scheduled to play twice and five matches scheduled on Andy Murray Arena. By the time Rybakina and Boulter were walking on court at the very specific time of precisely 5.41pm, the chances of all matches being completed had completely dwindled.
Raducanu should have been scheduled to compete on Court 1, the second court, but broadcast contracts at Queen’s prohibit the second court from being shown on any live broadcast, meaning the tournament organisers held out hope that they would arrive on court in time.
Saturday will be challenging regardless, with either winner being at a competitive disadvantage against Jovic, one of the bright young stars in the game. Still, Raducanu cut a relaxed, happy figure as she watched the final set of Boulter’s match. This was still a good day as she registered an excellent win against one of the most in-form players on the tour. This is the first time in more than a year that Raducanu has defeated a top 20 opponent in Cirstea, the world No 18.
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