Katie Boulter wins a tough battle to reach the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Open | Katie Boulter
Katie Boulter continued to find her form in the final weeks of her season as she reached the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Open with a tough 7-6 (7), 6-4 win over Xiyu Wang of China.
Boulter endured a challenging few months after Wimbledon, compiling a record of 6-8 between July and mid-October, but was unable to win consecutive matches. But while the off-season has already begun for many of Boulter’s colleagues, her decision to play an extended Asian swing has paid off.
After reaching the semi-finals of the WTA 500 event in Tokyo last week, Boulter has now put in two solid performances against weaker opponents in Hong Kong, a WTA 250 event. Wang, ranked No. 100 in the world, was Boulter’s only top-100 opponent in her five wins in the last two weeks, but just by winning matches she was able to boost her confidence and also pick up a helpful number of points.
“It was quite a game,” Boulter said. “She is an incredible opponent, she never lets up. Full credit to her, she just keeps hitting and is so talented. She made me work so hard today, which I’m honestly not too happy about.”
This time, for victory, Boulter had to overcome a marathon opening set of 78 minutes in which he recovered from a deficit at 2-4 to force a tiebreak. Wang is a tall, imposing 23-year-old who has long been highly praised and possesses a massive left forehand. She refused to let Boulter go and eventually scored the first set point 6-5 on Boulter’s serve.
Boulter saved the set point with a brilliant second serve at the T, forcing a return error from Wang before pushing her second set point out of the tiebreak. Despite breaking serve at the start of the second set, Boulter never felt comfortable, but after giving up the break at 4-3 after a long service game with a double fault, Boulter settled down and won the final two games of the match.
“I’m honestly a bit too stubborn to let myself go,” Boulter said. “I wish I could relax a little bit, but I just wanted to keep fighting and keep doing my best. She played incredible tennis. A lot of power, a lot of finesse in her punches. I just had to stay there as long as possible. I’m proud of myself today.”
In her penultimate tournament of the season, second seed Boulter will face either No. 7 seed Varvara Gracheva or Anastasia Zakharova for a place in the semifinals.
