Katie Boulter wins her first WTA 500 title at the San Diego Open
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British No.1 Katie Boulter lifted the first WTA 500 title of her career on Sunday as she defeated Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the final of the San Diego Open.
The 27-year-old came back from a set down to beat sixth seed Kostyuk 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 in two hours and 13 minutes.
The victory marks Boulter’s second and biggest WTA title of her career after winning the Rothesay Open Nottingham trophy last summer.
Boulter has risen 22 places in the WTA rankings to a new career-high at world No.27.
"I don't know what just happened," Boulter admitted following her landmark final win.
"This week has been very, very special for so many different reasons. This one is pretty amazing, I've worked very hard for it, I played some incredible tennis all week.
"Today was a complete battle with myself as well because I was a little bit nervous. I managed to get over the line, and that I'm very proud of.
"A lot of it was about me staying as tough as I possibly could mentally, and I managed to keep my cool and actually kind of went within myself and calmed myself down a lot. I think that really helped me, and then I started to relax and play through shots a little bit more."
Boulter converted seven of her 11 break point opportunities to clinch the win over Kostyuk, her fourth victory of the week against a top seeded player having also beaten Beatriz Haddad Maia, Donna Vekic and Emma Navarro in the previous rounds.
She becomes the second Briton to win a WTA 500 title after Johanna Konta in Stanford (2016) and Sydney (2017).
The Brit will now move on to Indian Wells to compete at the BNP Paribas Open.
Olivia Nicholls also featured amongst the WTA title-winners this week as she and Australia’s Olivia Gadecki triumphed at the ATX Open in Austin.
Nicholls and Gadecki beat Katarzyna Kawa and Bibiane Schoofs 6-2, 6-4 in the final to seal the Brit’s second career WTA title (Granby 2022).
