Katie Boulter admitted that a bizarre interruption during her Hong Kong Open win over Viktorija Golubic “got under my skin”.

The British No 1 was 6-2 and 5-2 up against the Swiss on Monday in their last-32 encounter but ended up letting her opponent back into the contest after being put off by an off-court noise.

During a point at deuce, what appeared to be a Windows 10 error sound effect played out, which clearly put Boulter off her stride at the WTA 250 event.

Despite complaining to the umpire about the hindrance, the point was not replayed after the 30-year-old fired her backhand into the tramlines.

Just as her shot was heading out, Boulter asked the umpire, “What was that?”, leading the commentator to say that she was asking for a “hindrance” call.

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When the umpire replied by saying she didn’t see either player stop during the point, an incredulous-looking Boulter could not quite believe it, and said, “That’s mad.”

Here is their full exchange.

Boulter: “So you heard something then?”

Umpire: “Yeah, but like outside [the court].”

Boulter: “Outside, outside? That wasn’t the sound system in here? So what was that?”

Umpire: “I don’t know, from outside.”

Boulter: “The sound of people playing, or?”

Umpire: “Well, it could be outside court noise, but for me it was not disruptive.”

Boulter: “I mean, it wouldn’t be that loud. There’s a tune for the point. If it happens again, surely it’s a let, no? I stopped and then kept playing because you didn’t say anything.”

Umpire, “Well, if it happens again from outside, I cannot do anything again.”

Boulter, “But it’s the sound system in here, nothing else.”

Umpire, “If there is noise from this court, I can do a let, but if it’s outside, I can’t do anything.”

Boulter, “So if it happens again, we just keep playing? No problem.”

The world No 49 was then broken twice in a row as Golubic looked to clinch the second set on a tiebreak. Boulter, however, was able to rediscover her composure and closed out a 6-2, 7-6 (2) victory.

While she was clearly not happy with how the incident was handled, Boulter said this was a “lesson learned” for her ahead of her last-16 match against Claire Liu.

The former Hong Kong Open finalist said in her on-court interview, “It was interesting. I was playing some really good tennis. I feel like I should have closed it out but a couple of things happened.

“There was a little bit of interesting judgement which got under my skin a little bit and, usually, I’m pretty good at batting it off but I was a little tired. It’s the end of the season and it seemed to get to me but lesson learned, I managed to get over the line.”