After another tournament where she broke new ground and solidified her status as a top-30 player, Katie Boulter’s great week in Florida ended with a 7-5, 6-1 fourth-round finish at the Miami Open. The game ended with a loss and a lesson learned. Tough and resourceful by Victoria Azarenka.
In completely unpleasant conditions with swirling winds and frustrating both athletes, Azarenka proved her great adaptability and experience by overcoming the difficulties and maintaining a consistent level until the end.
Despite the loss, it was another great performance in Boulter’s career, as evidenced by her defeat of world No. 13 Beatrice Haddad Maia on Saturday. Although she has spent almost her entire career as an unknown underdog facing top players, she now goes into these matches with the confidence that she can take on most players.
Azarenka, now 34 years old and actually a lower-ranked player at No. 32, two places below Bolter, was in 2012 when she topped the rankings and only Serena Williams could live up to her at Hard. It feels like a world away from that glorious era 13 years ago. court. Still, the two-time Grand Slam champion continues to have decent results, regularly making deep runs in big tournaments. She had already shown her indomitable qualities in the previous round, defeating seventh seed Qingwen Zhen in straight sets.
Miami’s fast courts helped both players compared to the slow hard courts at Indian Wells, where Boulter and Azarenka lost in the first round, but Monday’s constant strong wind gusts made it difficult for everyone.
Bolter may have plenty of easy and clean power, but from early on in the first set she was clearly struggling with the wind. She was constantly overhitting, and her errors were piling up, especially on the forehand wing. Meanwhile, Azarenka, as usual, unleashed a steady and relentless depth attack from both her wings, methodically crushing the vaulters and building a 5-2 lead.
To her credit, Bolter fought hard even though she lost the first set. With her back against the wall, she began to hit the ball more forcefully as Azarenka tensed her up. The bolter fought back to 5-5, preventing a total of five set points, but Azarenka once again showed her experience by finding her range and closing out the set. Having won her first set, the Belarusian opened her shoulders and raced through the second set, but a vaulter mistake proved her undoing.
When the situation favors the vaulter and she is completely free to attack, she has established herself as a dangerous player, and her ability to hit the ball beautifully no longer comes as any surprise. But as Azarenka shows, competing consistently at this level requires the same quality and discipline no matter the conditions or the player’s mood. For Boulter this is still her first season at the highest level and she left the court having gained valuable lessons from the hands of a great champion.
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Boulter will likely remain in Miami to watch the rest of the tournament for Alex de Minaur, who defeated Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6(3), 6-4 in the men’s third round, but after that she His first full clay season awaits. Boulter has spent most of her career on the ITF circuit, so during her WTA clay season she will continue to play in lower tournaments on hard courts that suit her attacking style. The 27-year-old has only played in six clay court tournaments in her life. She will learn many lessons over the next few months.
If she hadn’t performed so well and scored so many points over the past few weeks, this could have been a pretty tense period for Boulter. Her grass season is just around the corner and she needs to stick to some important points. Instead, she is currently 26th in the live rankings and she is free to continue playing. She competes against top players every week, and there’s no reason to feel she can’t achieve more.
