British women’s tennis is off to a record-breaking start at Wimbledon, with five players reaching the second round for the first time in 37 years.
British number one Katie Boulter and 27-year-old Harriet Dart won their first-round matches on Tuesday, joining former U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu, who won on Monday, wild card Yuriko Miyazaki, 28, and London-born 22-year-old Sonay Kartalu.
The last time five women advanced to the second round of the championships was in 1987.
Three British players also won on Tuesday: No. 1-ranked British player Jack Draper beat Sweden’s Elias Ymer in five sets, Cameron Norrie beat Argentina’s Facundo Diaz Acosta in straight sets and Jacob Fearnley beat Spain’s Alejandro Moro Canas.
Boulter beat Germany’s Tatjana Maria 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 on Court 3 on Tuesday with her grandfather Brian and mother Sue watching.
The Leicester-born 27-year-old, who will face British number two Dart in the second round, said: “It’s never an easy matchup playing an Englishman on British grass so I’m expecting it to be an absolute battle.”
“I’ve played against them a few times before, so I look at the results and think about what I need to do going into the match. But to be honest, for me it’s about playing tennis balls, not playing people.”
Boulter is the third generation of her family to be involved in the sport, following in the footsteps of her mother and maternal grandmother, Jill Gartshore, who were both talented athletes.
In 2022, Bowlter broke down in tears on court after a stunning win against the former world number one, just two days after the death of her grandmother.
She dedicated her second-round win to the local tennis champions, saying:[Jill’s] My favorite tournament was Wimbledon, so it’s a special tournament for me, and she watched every single match on TV.
“She’s someone who’s always been into tennis from the very beginning. She lives really close to the tennis club. It’s the tennis club where I started playing tennis, so Leicestershire means a lot to me.”
She is one of a small number of new British tennis players who credit their Wimbledon success to their grandmothers.
Draper, the British number one who beat Sweden’s Ymer on Centre Court on Tuesday, said his grandmother Brenda was vital to his success: she taught him tennis and traveled around the country with his grandfather Chris to watch him on the court.
Brenda, a former tennis player and later coach to some of the country’s top players, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 12 years ago when she was in her 60s. “Watching my grandmother deteriorate was devastating for me and my family,” Brenda, 22, told the BBC in December.
“Nana was one of my biggest supporters growing up and I’ve always had a very close relationship with her, but this is a disease that has completely taken away the person I knew her to be.”
Draper said Brenda still watches him train, but “she doesn’t know who I am.” “When my tennis matches are on TV, [my grandfather] “I’m going to tell Nana it was me, but she won’t recognize me anymore,” he said. “I want her to know and appreciate all that I’ve accomplished, because I know she’d be so proud of me.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Paul Jubb came close to winning his first Wimbledon title, but ultimately lost against Thiago Seybos Wild of Brazil, who is ranked 127 places higher than Jubb.
The 24-year-old wildcard was brought up by his grandmother on a council estate in Hull from the age of four after the deaths of his parents. His father, ex-military Sean, committed suicide in January 2000 when Jabu was just one year old, and his mother, Jacinta, died in hospital in 2008.
Jubb was introduced to racquet sports while playing swingball in his grandmother’s garden, and in an Instagram tribute to her in December, he described her death as the “worst and hardest” year of his life.
“It’s been a tough year with injuries and the death of my grandmother, but I’ve always tried to stay positive and it’s always been instilled in me to not dwell on the past and focus on the future,” he told Beyond magazine last month.
“My grandmother was my rock and acted as both a mother and a father, so I will miss her greatly, but I know she would want me to keep working hard and make her proud, and I am determined to do that.”
Fellow Britons Fran Jones, Billy Harris, Jan Choinski and Henry Searle were also eliminated in their first-round matches on Tuesday.
