Katie Boulter: 'First Grand Slam win and top-100 debut highlighted season'
The 22-year-old Katie Boulter is one of the players who had a breakthrough run in 2018, gaining more than 100 places in the ranking to crack the top-100 for the first time in a career. After a promising 2014 season when she was only 18, Katie was forced to miss the entire 2015 and build her game from the beginning in the following two seasons, reaching the top-200 last year and continuing to work on her tennis in the year behind us to make a name for herself and enter the elite group. Leicester native had a slower start of the year before qualifying for the main draw in Miami where she lost to Su-Wei Hsieh in two tight sets.
A few weeks later, Katie won ITF title in Portugal and there was another one just around the corner in Japan, gaining the momentum before the grass season where she produced an impressive tennis to reach the quarter-final in Surbiton and Nottingham, her first on the WTA Tour. A week before Wimbledon, Boulter lost in the final of Southsea and she was ready to score her first Grand Slam win at home Major, defeating Veronica Cepede Royg in three sets before losing to Naomi Osaka in the second round. The results were not that good for the rest of the year but she did enough during the Asian swing to secure the place in the top-100 and complete her career-best year so far.
Katie will train in Florida before heading to Australia and she is ready for more success in the season in front of us when she will seek more good results at Slams and big events.
"Highlight of 2018 was my first Grand Slam win and breaking into the top-100. They were the really big moments for me and hopefully I can get better and make 2019 a big year. It was definitely an amazing moment to enter the top-100. You work your whole life to get somewhere and it was one of the milestones I wanted to achieve. I had the best team around me and I was with them and managed to call them and speak to them so I think it was a special moment for everyone. Fans support means everything, it makes a huge difference when you play matches and when you know people are behind you and it gives you a positive vibe and it definitely makes a difference to me and my game so I appreciate it. I am taking a little bit off time right now and I'm going to Florida to do my pre-season, to work a little bit of a warm environment and get ready for Australia."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2R18OIm
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