Katie Boulter has enjoyed a fine week at Queen’s, but it really feels like an opportunity was missed for the Brit.
After all, having stunned the tennis world by beating Elena Rybakina to reach the semi-finals, all of a sudden it felt like she had made herself the favourite for the title.
And yet, she went on to follow that up with a loss to Donna Vekic, putting in a sub-par performance that left many scratching their heads.
Katie Boulter is clearly a supremely talented player, but whenever she claims these huge victories, her inability to consolidate them is worrying.
She has identified this issue, speaking in her post-match press conference.
Katie Boulter says how her run at Queen’s will impact her at Wimbledon
Asked about what learnings she can take from what should go down as a positive week on paper, Boulter admitted: “Yeah, I think over my many years of my career, I think it’s something that’s been, like, a work in progress.
“I mean, I already came off the court, and I said to my team that I feel like I have to find a way to do a better job and give myself more energy.
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“Going into a match like today after yesterday, I know it’s a really unique situation where you’re playing two matches in one day, and I have been sick the week before. Like, it’s not something that’s going to repeatedly happen, but for me, I really want to improve in that area. I want to improve in backing up my wins.
“I need to start doing that. Obviously yesterday was a great win for me, a top-10 player, top-5 player, but I need to be able to do that repeatedly to be able to do that at the big tournaments.”
This has been a longstanding issue for Boulter, and one that she thinks stems from a lack of consistency.
She referenced this as she added: “I think a lot of it is about consistency, not necessarily working on handling the pressure as such. I think it’s about getting my body to a place that I can consistently produce the same level every single day for two weeks.
“That, for me, is the most important thing, and that helps me deal with the pressure, because I feel like I know I can repeat that back to back. Whereas at the moment, I think I can do it for a few days, but then there’s always going to be one day that I’m struggling physically, and that’s not going to help me. I think my game relies so much on physicality. I think that’s important for me.
“Look, this week has been a great learning curve for me. I think it gave me a lot of belief knowing that I can beat a lot of good players on this surface, for sure. Yeah, Wimbledon is another opportunity to do that. Hopefully I can do it there too.”
Boulter had stated what she thought her win over Rybakina proved about her, but this loss to Vekic arguably goes against her argument.
Katie Boulter’s worrying record after claiming big wins
As Boulter touches upon herself, she is developing quite a worrying trend following these big wins.
After all, she never really seems to back them up with another victory, almost always facing what should be, on paper, a much easier opponent than the one she had just beaten.
Her loss to Vekic highlighted this, having just overcome a former Wimbledon and Australian Open champion in Elena Rybakina.
But this is a trend that stretches far back.
What is stopping Katie Boulter from staying in the WTA top 20?
When she beat Paula Badosa at Wimbledon last year, Boulter then inexplicably lost to Solana Sierra in the very next round.
Even as far back as 2022, when she beat Karolina Pliskova at Wimbledon, she was unable to consolidate that win. She lost to Harmony Tan in her next match.
It feels like Boulter summons so much energy to defeat these elite players, and the comedown is so severe that she has nothing left in the tank for the following match.
At least she has identified this issue. She now needs to solve it.
