First one talented British youngster makes a name for herself on day one, then another follows suit the next day. After Katie Swan’s win on Monday the 21-year-old wildcard Katie Boulter showed rare steel to record a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win over Verónica Cepede Royg of Paraguay in what was her first main-draw appearance at grand slam level.
Laura Robson, who won the juniors here 10 years ago, was among those watching as Boulter upset the vastly more experienced Cepede Royg, now ranked one place behind her at No 123, but a player good enough to have been ranked No 73 in the past. Having failed to convert a match point at 5-4 in the second set, Boulter could easily have crumbled. Instead she stayed with it and snatched the decider for the most important win of her career, not to mention some useful prize money, a guaranteed cheque of at least £63,000, more than a third of her life earnings to date.
“I’m ecstatic, honestly,” said Boulter, who will now play Japan’s Naomi Osaka, the No 18 seed. “It’s something I’ve dreamed of my whole life. I’m so happy that I could finally achieve one of my many goals I’ve been trying to pursue. It was really difficult, having a match point, not getting it but finding a way is something that is built within me. I feel like I’m a great competitor on the court. I’d like to think so anyway. I think that got me through today. I showed that and I showed some guts. I’m pretty happy with it.”
For a while it looked as if another wildcard, Gabriella Taylor, might join her in the second round. Four years ago Taylor suffered an illness here playing the juniors that was initially believed to have been a poisoning. Now ranked No 180, the 20-year-old was overwhelmed in the first set by the 2014 runner-up, Eugenie Bouchard, but took the Canadian to a deciding set before finally going down 6-0, 4-6, 6-3.
“I think she had a lot more experience than me in the third set to close it,” Taylor said. “But I’m very happy with my performance and how I managed to switch the situation and actually get to that third set. I think I did very well in that case.”
Katy Dunne had two set points in the second set but was beaten 6-3, 7-6 by 12th seed Jelena Ostapenko, while Heather Watson went out in the first round for the third time in her last four grand slam events. She had a set point in the second set but was beaten 6-4, 7-5 by Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium.
