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Katie Boulter has questioned the umpire’s judgement after winning her opening match at the Hong Kong Open. The eighth seed survived a brief lapse in the second set to beat Viktorija Golubic 6-2 7-6(2). Boulter looked to be cruising to victory when she led 5-2 in the second set, but she was thrown off by an interruption and lost four games in a row before recovering to take it in a tiebreak. Afterwards, the Brit admitted the incident had gotten “under her skin”.
A former finalist in Hong Kong, Boulter served for the match at 5-2 in the second and even had a match point on her serve. During the crucial game, the British No. 1 complained to chair umpire S. Takahashi when a point was not replayed despite an audible noise coming from outside of the court.
It unsettled Boulter, who then had her serve broken twice in a row. After battling back to secure a straight-set victory, the 30-year-old immediately called out the chair official’s decision-making.
“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,” Boulter said after blowing her big lead in set two.
“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 end of season and it seemed to get to me but lesson learned, I managed to get over the line.”
It’s the second time in as many weeks that Boulter has beaten Swiss ace Golubic. The Brit earned a convincing 6-2 6-1 win over the world No. 89 on her way to the Osaka semi-finals late last month. And Boulter is hoping to continue that form in Hong Kong, where she now faces Claire Liu.
The British women have enjoyed a strong Asian swing. Aside from Boulter’s run to the Osaka semi-finals, Sonay Kartal finished runner-up at the WTA 1000 event in Wuhan last month.
And Harriet Dart came through qualifying to win a maiden WTA Tour title in Guangzhou over the weekend. The Brit beat teenage star Lilli Tagger 4-6 6-3 6-4 in Sunday’s final and said: “I’ll try not to get too emotional. A big thank you to my team this week.
“It’s amazing to play in front of such a big crowd. It’s been so much fun here and I really appreciate it and hope to be back next year.
“This week shows that even when I’m down – and people think I’m down and out – I’m still able to overcome it. Today was a really tough match. I have no doubt Lilli will go on and win multiple titles. To come through a week like this means a lot.”
Britain now has four women in the top 100 – Boulter, Kartal, Dart, and Francesca Jones. Emma Raducanu is currently sitting at No. 106 and has not played a match since June due to a leg injury. Alicia Dudeney also reached a career-high ranking of No. 200 this week after reaching the second round of the WTA 125 event in Samsun, Turkey.
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