After another tournament that has seen her break more new ground and solidify her status as a top 30 player, Katie Boulter’s excellent week in Florida ended with a lesson as she was defeated 7-5, 6-1 in the fourth round of the Miami Open by a tough, resourceful Victoria Azarenka.
In unpleasant conditions, with the wind swirling and irritating both players, Azarenka demonstrated her greater adaptability and experience by maintaining a consistent level through her difficulties and until the end.
Despite the loss, this tournament marks another great performance in Boulter’s career, underlined by her dismantling of Beatriz Haddad Maia, the world No 13, on Saturday. Having spent nearly her entire career facing up to the top players as an unknown underdog, she now enters these matches certain of her ability to battle with most.
Now 34 years old and the lower-ranked player at No 32, two spots below Boulter, Azarenka is a world away from that glistening period in 2012-13 when she stood atop the rankings and only Serena Williams could answer to her on a hard court. Still, the two-time grand slam champion continues to produce decent results, periodically making deep runs in big tournaments. She already showed her enduring quality in the previous round, moving past Qinwen Zheng, the seventh seed, in straight sets.
The faster courts of Miami have aided both players compared to the slow hard courts at Indian Wells, where both Boulter and Azarenka lost in the first round, but the constant, forceful gusts of wind on Monday were difficult for all.
Boulter may possess ample easy, clean power, but from early on in the first set she was clearly struggling in the wind. She was constantly overhitting, with errors particularly piling up on her forehand wing. Azarenka, meanwhile, hit with consistent, relentless depth off both wings as always, methodically grinding Boulter down as she established a 5-2 lead.
To her credit, even as the first set fell away from her, Boulter fought hard. With her back to the wall, she began to strike the ball with greater authority as Azarenka became increasingly nervous. Boulter fought back to 5-5, saving five set points in total, but Azarenka again showed her experience by finding her range and closing out the set. With the first set secured, the Belarusian opened her shoulders and rolled through the second set as Boulter’s errors proved her undoing.
When the conditions are in Boulter’s favour and she can just attack with total freedom, she has established herself as a dangerous player and there is no longer any surprise about her ability to strike the ball beautifully. But as Azarenka shows, consistently competing at this level requires that same quality and discipline regardless of conditions or how the player is feeling. This is still Boulter’s first season at the highest level, and she left the court with a valuable lesson at the hands of a great champion.
Boulter will presumably remain in Miami to see out the remainder of Alex de Minaur’s tournament as he defeated Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6 (3), 6-4 in the men’s third round, but then her first ever full clay season awaits. Since Boulter has spent most of her career on the ITF circuit, during the WTA’s clay season she would continue to play lower tournaments on hard courts, a surface more favourable for her attacking style. At 27 years old, she has only contested six clay-court tournaments. There will be more lessons to learn in the coming months.
If she had not performed so well and gained so many points in the past few weeks, this could have been quite a tense period for Boulter. The grass season is now on the horizon, where she has significant points to defend. Instead, she is No 26 in the live rankings and she can continue to play with freedom. As she mixes with top players each week, there is no reason for her to feel like she can not achieve even more.
