The 27-year-old Katie Boulter was pretty decent over the past eight years, but she wasn’t able to beat the very good players, consistently. Well this year, she began to be more aggressive, and also, with some extra shots. On Sunday, she won Rothesay Open, Nottingham, beating Emma Raducanu and Karolina Pliskova. It was difficult that week with a lot of rain, but on the grass, she stood in there, and she rarely did not collapse.
“To come out here and play some seriously good tennis and get over the line, I’m not entirely sure how I did it in the end. But I’ve gone back-to-back and I’m super proud of myself,” Boulter said.
That was in England, and in February in San Diego, the United States, Boulter’s won it on the hardcourts. She has become very consistent and flatted it out. Her first serve is hard, and she can hit it into the corners. She has beat a number of solid players, but she has yet to beat any of the top 10s competitors this year. Maybe she can rise again, as this week, she will be in Birmingham.
That was a stringy match when Liudmila Samsonova beat the Canadian Bianca Andreescu 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the final at Libema Open in the Netherlands.
The Russian Samsonova has had a so-so year, but when she is really on, she can out-hitter. Even last year in Beijing, she reached into the final at a huge event, and she beat Petra Kvitova, Jelena Ostapenko and Elena Rybakina, before she lost against the No. 1, Iga Swiatek. That was darn, good.
On Sunday, the No. 15 Samsonova was battling, all the time. She had to, as in the semis, she bashed over Ekaterina Alexandrova, and in the final, she slammed over Andreescu. As she once said, “I think [the mental] was the part where I had more difficulties, to play all the weeks on the same level. I think I had the tennis level, I had the physical level already, but I didn’t have the mental level to do it consistently,” Samsonova said.
Andreescu lost, and in third set, she had to take an off-court medical timeout. Then she was done. However, she was very pleased.
“For me, this is definitely a step forward,” Andreescu said. “I’ve been through a lot for quite some time, especially the last 10 months. This is just my second tournament back. Obviously it’s upsetting, but I know there are good things coming for me.”