Katie Boulter opens up on Alex de Minaur dilemma as tennis couple suffer disappointment | Tennis | Sport

British No. 3 Katie Boulter found herself in an unusual situation at the Madrid Open on Friday. She was preparing to face fifth seed Jessica Pegula in the second night session slot on the Manolo Santana Stadium while her fiance, ATP No. 8 Alex de Minaur, was losing to teenage sensation Rafael Jodar in the first night match.

And it was a tough evening for the couple. As soon as De Minaur suffered a 6-3 6-1 defeat to the 19-year-old wildcard, Boulter had to take to the court, leaving virtually no time to see the Aussie. And her singles run at the Caja Magica also came to an end, with Pegula winning 6-4 6-4.

Boulter and De Minaur have been together for six years, so they’ve learned to juggle their tennis with their relationship. The Brit still admitted it was a “very unique situation” to be playing back-to-back on the same court, and to have to go out and compete after her fiance had suffered such a difficult defeat.

But the world No. 61 came up with a clever strategy to deal with their night session schedule, treating it like a Billie Jean King Cup tie, where she would usually watch a British teammate play in the first singles rubber before going to prepare for her own match.

“It’s funny, because I actually compared it to Billie Jean King Cup right before I went on the court. I said, look, ultimately, I’m gonna prepare like it’s Billie Jean, and that’s my teammate, which it ultimately is, in the long run,” she explained after losing to Pegula.

“So yeah, I mean, obviously really difficult to watch him go through that, but one thing I know for sure is he’s a fighter, and I mean, he’s one of the best tennis players in the world. It didn’t go anywhere, so he had a tough day at the office, and I’m sure he’ll be completely fine.

“Absolutely, I follow it exactly how I would in Billie Jean King Cup. You know, I’m there rooting [for him]. I got out for a couple of games in the first set. I think I kind of have my routine with that, which I watch a certain amount, and then I go back and sort myself out, but I’m still following the score like I would any other match.”

It’s only been a year since Boulter won her first tour-level match on the clay, beating Katerina Siniakova in Madrid 12 months ago. And there were positive signs for the 29-year-old as she managed to keep the score close against Pegula on Friday night, though couldn’t convert any of her five break points.

“I didn’t really know what to expect. I’ve played a couple of top players on clay, I’ve not really competed with any of them, if I’m honest,” she explained. “I think today… I’ve come away from the match not feeling like I played unbelievably well. And I think it was one break of serve on each set, which was extremely close, and I felt like I had a lot of opportunities to break back.

“After having just spoken with my coach, I think… I would probably be quite harsh on myself, but I think he would maybe be a little bit more complimentary, where it was close enough that I was in reach of maybe sneaking one of the sets. And on my worst surface, and against a top 10 player who is confident, I mean, it’s definitely promising, and it’s a start. As I said, I feel like I’m on an upward trajectory. I know that everything’s not gonna be perfect, but I do feel like I’m improving.”

The world No. 61 has also entered the doubles draw with tennis icon Venus Williams, and they face Jiang Xinyu and Xu Yifan in the first round on Saturday. Boulter added: “Of course I want to win. I want to do as well as I can, and enjoy it at the same time, because I don’t think these opportunities come along that often. So whether there’s one match, five matches, the whole tournament, honestly, I’m gonna have the most amount of fun out there, and I hope she does, too.”

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