Katie Boulter has officially become the new British Number 1 in the WTA rankings as of Monday 12th June.
After reaching the semi-finals of the Lexus Surbiton Trophy, Boulter overtakes Emma Raducanu to claim her first ever British number 1 title. Raducanu held the ranking for almost two years following her momentous US Open title win in 2021 at just 18 years old.
Boulter is the 23rd women to claim this position since the rankings began in 1975. This sees her join a list adorned with the greats of British tennis such as Virginia Wade and Sue Barker.
Last year Boulter reached her first WTA quarter final at the Birmingham Classic. She defeated two huge names of 10th seeded Alison Riske-Amritraj and 2022 WTA finals winner, Caroline Garcia. Boulter completed both games without dropping a set but eventually fell 6-4 6-1 to Romanian Simona Halep in the quarter finals.
In the Round of 32 at the Rothesay Eastbourne International just a few days later, she knocked out 4th seed and former Wimbledon champion, Karolína Plíšková in a career best win. The game saw Boulter go from trailing 5-0 in the first set to winning the game in three. She narrowly lost out to Petra Kvitová in a thrilling three set match in the quarter finals, a run to most certainly be proud of.
The 26 year old further achieved her career best run at Wimbledon in 2022. The Brit reached the 3rd round of the Championships and dropped out in a shock 2 set defeat. In the second round, she overcame her previous opponent of Plíšková once again in 3 sets. The second of these went to a tiebreak but in the end Boulter came out on top and would go on to take the final set.
In the past 12 months since her fantastic grass court run she’s acclaimed a few titles along the way. She won her second W60 title in Canberra on hard court where she scooped up maximum points. Boulter has also recently reached finals of W80 and W60 ITF events in Japan, these vital points allowing her to slide up the rankings into the British Number 1 spot.
Currently Boulter lies at 126 in the World WTA rankings with an impressive 22/9 win/loss record across this season. Her career high ranking of 82, achieved in February 2019 certainly looks to be in reach of improving on.
Currently Boulter is playing in the Rothesay Open Nottingham. She defeated fellow Brit and young rising star, Emily Appleton in the Round of 32. The game was completed in two sets, Boulter dropping just 4 games. She is set to face Ukraine’s Daria Snigur next in the Round of 16.
Written by Sophie Scriven.
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