Katie Boulter was supported like an adopted Aussie as she went down swinging in a 6-0 7-5 defeat to the in-form 10th seed Belinda Bencic at the Australian Open.
Boulter has handed a difficult opening match against Bencic, who returned to the world’s top-10 ahead of the Australian Open after winning five matches in a row to start the season, including victories over Iga Swiatek and Jasmine Paolini.
Boulter is engaged to Alex de Minaur, the men’s No 6 and top home hope at the Australian Open, who was watching court-side at the Margaret Court Arena, and the former British No 1 was cheered on by chants of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” from the crowd.
Boulter had set her expectations extremely low after a difficult 2025, where her ranking plummeted to outside the world’s top 100, and she required late withdrawals to make it into the main draw and avoid the qualifying rounds.
The 29-year-old also changed coaches ahead of the new season, hiring Maria Sharapova’s former coach Michael Joyce for the Australian Open, and said she was under no pressure ahead of her first-round match against the in-form Bencic.
“I'm just going to go out and swing,” Boulter said pre-match. “I really don't think there's any pressure. I don't think there's anyone in this room that thinks I'm going to win that match.”
Boulter’s assessment appeared to be accurate when she lost a bagel set in just 26 minutes, but the second set was a far more competitive contest after the British player held serve for the first time in the opening game.
After dropping serve, Boulter immediately bounced back to break Bencic for the first time and level the match at 4-4. But the former Olympic champion Bencic broke Boulter for the second time to lead 6-5, before serving out a 6-0 7-5 win.
“It was a really tough first set,” Boulter said. “I felt like she has such a unique playing style that it took me a moment to kind of adjust and get used to how she hits the ball. She takes so much time away, and it's unique in comparison to a lot of tennis players. It took me moment to understand that.
“I felt like I was building pressure a lot in the second. I definitely had my chances. I don't think it was the cleanest match coming from my racquet. She ultimately was a class above me. I felt like I was in with a shot in the second and definitely could be playing out there in the third. I think that is my takeaway from it. There are some definite positives. But a lot to learn from.”
In terms of form, the Swiss is back as one of the hottest players in the women’s draw - less than two years after giving birth to first child Bella in April 2024 - and won all five of her singles matches at the season-opening United Cup to return to the top-10 for the first time since March 2023.
“It means a lot,” she said. “I don't think we realised yet, because we're like in between tournaments and you don't want to think about it too much, but I think it just really shows the hard work it took to get back and to have such a comeback that we did, and I really hope it doesn't end here.”
