How a FaceTime call with Alex de Minaur saw Katie Boulter climb up tennis ranks
British tennis player Katie Boulter climbed more than 100 places in the world rankings following a video call with boyfriend Alex de Minaur.
Flailing outside the world’s top 150 at the start of May, Katie Boulter felt a world away from her Australian boyfriend Alex de Minaur. As she headed to Japan for two weeks of lower-tier ITF events, he was in the midst of contesting the prestigious back-to-back Masters tournaments in Madrid and Rome.
A subsequent video conversation between continents provided the spark that has transformed Boulter’s career. Having seldom contested the same tournaments in the first few months of the season, De Minaur pointed out that a strong showing in Japan could help her climb up the rankings towards the main tour. Boulter’s response was to finish as runner-up in consecutive weeks, kickstarting a rise that helped the 27-year-old Briton eventually go on to reach the top 50 for the first time.
“I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I now have to see more of him,” Boulter jokes. “When I was in Japan on FaceTime to him, we were talking about how these tournaments are a stepping stone for us to spend a bit more time together. Ultimately I did draw a bit of inspiration from that. It is a natural motivation for me to be wanting to play the bigger events but also because I get to have great people around me.”
The support of the 24-year-old De Minaur – who finished his season ranked No 12 in the world – has been pivotal in Boulter’s considerable progress this year. Absent from the top 100 for four years after her initial breakthrough in 2019 was stalled by a stress fracture in her back, she had struggled to put a series of successful results together until the start of the summer.
The intense spotlight that comes hand in hand with the grass-court season for British players could have easily derailed her, but Boulter actually thrived on home soil by winning her first WTA Tour title, at the Nottingham Open, and reaching the third round of Wimbledon. Careful not to get caught up with the inevitable distractions that come at that excitable time of the year, she established a protective bubble with De Minaur and their respective coaches and family members.
“Obviously I’ve had an element of it before but I think this grass season was definitely a different experience for me,” Boulter says. “I think the biggest thing was looking at Alex, who has been in that spotlight his whole life [in Australia], and I really tried to draw from the way that he holds himself. He had a lot of advice for me for that kind of thing.
“I think the important thing was that I found time for myself. I found my own little bubble and I stayed within it. My team, Alex and his team were all in it and just trying to go about our business, trying to pretend it’s like a normal day. It obviously isn’t, we’re playing Wimbledon, which is the dream of every player. But it does help having that kind of insight from someone who has been through it themselves many times and come out the other side of it.”
From May onwards, the story of Boulter’s season is her taking advantage of the opportunities that came her way. She faced a very generous draw in Nottingham – a tournament held only 20 miles from her home village of Woodhouse Eaves in Leicestershire – with all five of her opponents ranked outside the top 100. To her credit, she steamrolled her way to the title without dropping a set.
“It was a huge week,” Boulter says. “I have to try and put it in perspective where a lot of players can actually go their entire career ranked 30 or 40 and they’ve never won a title. It means a lot to me to actually get over the line. The fact that I could do it in front of my family in a very special place to me, it just makes it even sweeter. It was a dream come true.”
The next step for Boulter is beating the best players in the world. While she can rise to the occasion with an aggressive game that can pose fleeting problems for anyone, she has a poor record against top-20 opponents, with only two wins in 18 such matches. Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina are among those who offered straight-sets lessons to Boulter this year.
“I feel like I’ve got used to playing these matches more and more,” Boulter says. “It’s a position I want to be in. If I’m playing these girls, it means that I’m heading in the right direction and I can have a real go at them. I’ve got absolutely nothing to lose. Going into the US swing where I get to play against players like Coco Gauff and take some lessons from it, it doesn’t really matter to me what the score is. It’s about seeing what the best players in the world do and how I can improve myself.”
As has happened on the men’s side in recent years, there is the possibility of more all-British contests on the WTA Tour in 2024. With Boulter presently ranked No 56, Jodie Burrage at No 97 and Emma Raducanu set to return from injury next month, it could be beneficial for all involved to be pushing each other on competitively. For Boulter, though, there is a wider world out there.
“I think competition is always healthy but I’m really not someone to put too much conversation on that kind of thing because ultimately we play each other once in a blue moon,” Boulter says. “It’s great to see Emma coming back and I’m sure she’ll be back where she belongs very quickly. Also to see Jodie pushing up the rankings, it really is a place where she should be. We’ve still got the likes of Harriet Dart and Heather Watson [ranked No 121 and No 137 respectively] who are very well established.
“I don’t doubt it’s going to be a good little competition for all of us. I’m sure going forward for British tennis it’s going to be very exciting. But at the end of the day, I have still got to focus on myself and what’s important. As much as I cheer these girls on, there are a lot more players to play than the British girls.”
The overriding sense from talking with Boulter is that she is far more assured about herself. At the start of this year she was uncertain and unsettled about where she could play because of her lowly ranking. Now she has built a pedestal to move forward in 2024 with her place already guaranteed in the Australian Open and several WTA Tour events. The season will start in the colours of her country as the British women’s No 1 at the United Cup mixed team competition in Perth.
“Even a couple of weeks into my pre-season, I could already see the massive gains that I had this year,” Boulter says. “I’m really pushing on in the right direction. More than anything, I think I’m hungrier than ever. I feel like I’ve got a new burst of energy which is throwing me into next year, where I just want to give it everything I’ve got and see what comes of it. I am very happy but I’m also pushing myself for more because I’m not satisfied yet.”
