Katie Boulter had a big weekend – and so did her boyfriend.
Great Britain’s top-ranked female tennis player claimed a WTA 500 title at the Cymbiotika San Diego Open, only hours after her boyfriend, Australian Alex de Minaur, successfully defended his ATP 500 title in Acapulco, then raced north to see her defeat Marta Kostyuk 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, at Barnes Tennis Center.
The world No. 49 is the lowest ranked WTA 500 champion since 106th-ranked Liudmila Samsonova took the Berlin title in 2021.
On Monday, though, she is projected to climb to a career-high No. 27.
Boulter this week toppled the Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 7 seeds in earning the biggest title of her career.
Boulter, 27, who, per tournament tradition, was also gifted a surfboard for her efforts, joked, “That will be an absolute nightmare to get home.”
“I started my year out great,” Boulter said. “To be here right now and getting wins day in and day out with people ranked higher than me, it really does feel good. I have a lot of confidence going into the next few weeks.”
Kostyuk, a sixth seed from Ukraine, would need three service breaks, seven set points and just over an hour to take the tense opener, the clincher coming on an untimely double fault from Boulter at 5-6, 15-40.
But Boulter would finally find her footing in the second set, surging ahead with the powerful ground game that had served her well throughout the week. She closed out Kostyuk, a quarterfinalist earlier this year at the Australian Open, in two hours and 13 minutes.
Boulter sent a special thank-you to her boyfriend courtside after the match. “He finished last night at midnight. He got in a 4:15 taxi this morning and a 6 o’clock flight to be here today, so I do appreciate it.”
The 34th-ranked Kostyuk had advanced to the final with a career-best 7-6(4), 6-1 victory over top-seeded and fifth-ranked Jessica Pegula in the semifinals.
Boulter is the first British woman to win a title in San Diego since an unseeded Annabel Croft defeated Australian Wendy Turnbull, 6-0, 7-6(5), at the 1985 Virginia Slims of San Diego, played at the San Diego Hilton Beach & Tennis Resort.
Meanwhile, the American-Australian duo of Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez, third seeded, captured the doubles title in a rain-delayed final in Barnes Stadium, taking down the top-seeded American tandem of Jessica Pegula and Desirae Krawczyk 6-1, 6-2, in 58 minutes.
Asked what makes her team, which has reached back-to-back finals in Dubai and San Diego, so effective, Perez said, “It’s a combination of big serves and aggressive net play. I think we like to set each other up and play on our terms a lot.”
