“It’s something that I struggle with a little,” Katie Boulter says in her hotel room in Melbourne at the end of a long and draining day which began with yet another test for Covid before, finally, she will be free to play tennis in a warm-up tournament next week. “I’m tested every single day here but you just never know what might happen. I’ve taken lots of tests these past few weeks and it’s pretty stressful. I’ve got a couple more to go until the end of quarantine and then hopefully all these stresses can be relieved.”
It’s just after eight on Thursday night in Melbourne and Boulter and I are in the midst of a second interview after we spoke at length last month. The strain of the Covid blues are never far from our conversations even though Boulter is an upbeat 24-year-old who also talks happily about her beloved Leicester City and her renewed hope that she will soon be playing better tennis than she did when ranked world No 82 just before injury struck her down in April 2019.
A week on Monday, the delayed Australian Open will begin as Boulter resumes a career that has sometimes seemed blighted by bad luck. She had just started an encouraging return last March, after missing most of 2019 while battling a stress fracture in her back and chronic fatigue syndrome, when the first lockdown changed everything. Boulter now has a wildcard which guarantees her entry into the first major of the year but every Covid test casts a shadow of worry that all her hard work to get back on court will end suddenly.
“We’re doing PCR tests every single day and it normally takes 24 hours to get the result,” she explains. “So each day you have to wait till the next day for the results – and then you take another test.”
Boulter has overcome so much adversity the past few years that she makes it plain she is not complaining. Some of her contemporaries on the men’s and women’s tour have moaned about their apparent hardship while cocooned in hotel rooms with all their expenses paid for by the tournament organisers. Boulter is different and, having worked as a volunteer for Age UK during the first lockdown, she is deeply aware that the anxieties and inconvenience of living in a bubble and daily Covid tests do not matter much when compared to the grief and distress suffered by millions of people around the world.
Roberto Bautista Agut, the world No 13, said quarantine was “like being in jail, with wifi” but Boulter offers a more accurate response. “It’s not easy but we have to keep reminding ourselves of how lucky we are to be here. I feel very grateful to be in this quarantine, to be in this country and given the chance to compete. There’s a lot going on in the world that is far worse.”
She also acknowledges that she is among the more fortunate group who have not been confined to a hard lockdown. In contrast, 72 players have been locked inside their rooms for a fortnight and reduced to hitting balls against mattresses or the wall after they flew in on charter flights that carried people who then tested positive for Covid. “I was talking to Heather Watson [her British Fed Cup teammate who was unlucky enough to be on one of the contaminated flights] and some of the other girls in the same situation and it’s really difficult for them. My heart goes out to them – but the main thing is that they’re healthy and hopefully after these 14 days are up they can still compete.”
Boulter has been through short spells of hard quarantine in Dubai and Melbourne this month but over the past week there have been brief bursts of comparative normality. “I actually had a really good day today,” she says. “I’m a little tired but I’m feeling good. I had five hours out of my room. I got two hours on the court, an hour-and-a-half in the gym and the rest for food. I’m definitely going to sleep well tonight.”
She laughs, as she did last month when saying: “I’ve had enough adversity to last a long time.” In April 2019, Boulter and Jo Konta gave so much as GB beat Kazakhstan in a play-off to clinch promotion to the elite group stages of the Fed Cup for the first time in 26 years. Boulter played two gruelling three-set matches and, after beating Zarina Diyas 6-7, 6-4, 6-1, she sealed the tie. But in the process she suffered the spinal stress fracture that would keep her out of the game the rest of the year.
Boulter’s rehabilitation was also made much more difficult by her chronic fatigue. It was a trial to which she had been long accustomed as she has endured this mysterious and sapping illness since her late teens. “I reached my highest ranking of 82 only practising once a day and doing zero gym,” she says. “I’m still very careful with what I do. There are certain exercises I’ve categorically ruled out. But in terms of chronic fatigue I now feel like I’ve officially conquered it. I am as strong as I have ever been physically. And mentally I feel like I’m in a great place after that very difficult time [in 2019]. It gives me a lot of faith I can get back to being No82 and then push on from there.”
Covid presented a new challenge because last March, while on the comeback trail in Indian Wells, she beat Anna Blinkova, who was then world No60. “I felt I was back to my best as I’d been playing some very good tennis consistently, day in, day out. I struggled when I started again and had a tough time at the Australian [where she lost in the first round, 6-4, 7-5 to Elina Svitolina, the No 5 seed]. But it was all very good because I was practising with top players every single day. So I played really well going into Indian Wells and I felt confident. I was ready to take on the year and then, of course, Covid happened. I was pretty devastated because I felt I had my momentum back. But I got through it.”
Boulter also had some fun along the way – often in the company of her friend Laura Robson who is also making a comeback after enduring a far more debilitating run of career-threatening injuries. “It’s been very tough to watch her go through everything the last couple of years,” Boulter says of Robson. “She was back on the court recently and walking around beaming. It was really nice to see her happy and in her element.
“It was also funny because we were in lockdown together. She stayed with me [in London] for a few months because she was getting her house renovated. We got to the level of boredom where we were making TikTok videos. Many of them didn’t get aired which is a massive plus for me. But we had lots of fun. The tour can be very demanding and so to be at home, and sleep in my own bed, for many months was really enjoyable. At the same time it gave me challenges because I’m not used to being in one place at one time, especially locked up.
“But I did some work for Age UK and it’s something very close to my heart. I’ve been missing my grandparents a lot and so I like to support people who are a little lonely. There was one elderly lady I called every week so I could check that she’s OK and see if she needs anything doing. It definitely helps her and that’s something that makes me really happy and proud.”
Have they met in person? “Not yet but she doesn’t live very far from me. Meeting up was our next step and then lockdown started again and so we had to put those plans on hold. So I just call her but I have no doubt we will meet up at some point.”
Is her elderly friend a tennis fan? “I don’t actually talk to her that much about tennis. I try and ask more about her and it’s good to hear her talk about her grandchildren and her son. I like to listen to her and let her speak because I think she enjoys that. But she knows what I do.”
Boulter also follows her favourite football team wherever she is in the world. “I’ll use any excuse right now to talk about Leicester City,” she says. “I class myself as a Fox because I love coming from Leicestershire and the club have been part of my life from a very young age. There’s been a lot of pain but we don’t talk about that. We talk about winning the league and how well the team are doing now.”
Who is her favourite player? “It would be rude not to say Jamie Vardy but I like James Maddison and lots of others. I’m lucky enough with the timing to be able to see matches while I’ve been in Australia. And, my God, they’re doing great.”
Boulter’s long breaks from tennis over the last 20 months mean her world ranking has slipped to No 369. But she still has five wild cards, with her No 82 ranking protected for these tournaments, and she remains determined to make the most of these opportunities. “I want to be back in the top 100, without a doubt, by the end of the year. I look at Dan Evans and he went from nowhere to 100 [after a suspension following a positive test for cocaine]. It’s very hard but he has shown it’s possible and that gives me hope.”
Boulter also recalls the dizzying climb Konta made from obscurity to a top 10 ranking and three grand slam semi-finals. “It’s been great to see Jo’s path. I practise with her sometimes and it gives me hope because I feel I can match her on those days. But you have to do it consistently day-in, day-out. I want to be in the top 10 one day and I believe I can be there. It’s just a matter of keeping my body and mind in check. One thing I can guarantee is that, no matter what is thrown in my direction, I’m a fighter and I’ll get there eventually.”
