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The 30-year-old player had lost her number one status briefly to Sonay Kartal after Kartal’s successful run to the final of the Wuhan Open last week, but quickly regained her position in Japan.

Boulter played a nail-biting three set quarter-final match against Croatian player, Antonia Ruzic.

She lost the first set 3-6, and fell two break points down in the second set before fighting her way into winning the second and third sets 6-3 6-3.

She will now face Katerina Siniakova on the court in Osaka. Her first semi-final since playing at Queen’s in June.

She told the press: “She’s one hell of a player, extremely dangerous. It’s going to be who gets the first strike in.

“I’ve got nothing to lose. She’s been building extremely well this week, so I’m going to have to come prepared.”

The other semi-final in Osaka will feature an all-American clash between top seed Ann Li and Ashlyn Krueger.

Although she is no longer British number one, Kartal is noted as having a “significant shift up” in the global rankings by the WTA after gaining 121 points post-Wuhan.

The men’s Japan Open was played in early October. It was won by Carlos Alcaraz, the current world number three who missed a significant amount of the 2026 season due to injury.

Boulter has been playing tennis since she was 5 years old. She is the daughter of a former tennis coach, and has said her tennis idol is Serena Williams.

Although she made a post-retirement comeback to the sport this summer, Williams has not played a match since losing in the round of 32 at the US Open in August.