Katie Boulter admitted that she had been going through a ‘hard year’ after winning the Ostrava Open on Saturday. She came from behind to defeat Tamara Korpatsch in the final, claiming a 5-7 6-2 6-1 victory to land the fourth WTA title of her career. Boulter had slipped down to 120th in the rankings before the tournament but will climb back into the top 100 when they are updated on Monday.
She lost four straight games at the end of the opening set and the start of the second, but reeled off 12 of the next 15 games to seal victory. It marked her first title since winning the Nottingham Open for the second time in the summer of 2024. Boulter only lost two sets throughout the entire tournament, making a solid start to her coaching partnership with Michael Joyce.
In her victory speech, the 29-year-old sent a cheeky birthday message to Joyce while also opening up on the hard times she has been through over the last 12 months.
She said: “I’d like to start with my team. We’re only a few weeks into business right now Mickey, but we’ve got one in the bag. And it was on your birthday week! Massive week for you, 53 years old, big one, so that was your present to you.
“I hope we can keep doing a lot of work. To my stable team, my whole family back home, everyone close to me knows how hard this last year has been for me.
“To kind of get today, it makes it all worth it. I appreciate the work you do on a daily basis. It means everything to me. Thank you.”
Boulter will rise to 84th in the WTA rankings after wrapping up her victory over Korpatsch in exactly two hours.
She had found tour-level wins hard to come by since last year’s Wimbledon and tore an abductor in her final event of last year in Hong Kong.
She will now get the opportunity to rest and recuperate, given that she isn’t playing at the upcoming Qatar Open.
The former US Open champion only won two games throughout the entire contest as she slipped to a chastening 6-0 6-2 defeat.
It was a day to forget for Raducanu, who produced four double-faults and was never at the required standard at any point during the match.