How Katie Boulter secured biggest win of her career in a slugfest with Jessica Pegula
In her second match of the 2024 season, Katie Boulter secured the biggest win of her career by defeating American Jessica Pegula in a three-set duel, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, that lasted nearly three hours. Boulter played high-quality tennis sprinkling the ball all over the court frustrating Pegula.
Pegula, 29, did not serve as well as usual and was prone to commit unforced errors, but these issues were more a function of her trying to pull out her best tennis in the first match of the season to stop the surging Boulter. Rustiness could have been a contributing factor as Pegula last played tennis on November 6 losing the WTA Finals championship to Iga Swiatek.
Boulter lost a close first set and was down two breaks in the second but never waivered in her confidence continuing to strike the ball well and construct smart rallies, making unbelievable shots. This is her first career victory over a Top 5 player.
Katie Boulter is aiming for Top 10
Boulter, 27, has long been considered a rising star on the WTA Tour and is currently ranked 56th, but her goal is to reach the Top 10 If she plays her 2024 matches like she played against Pegula, she could get there at warp speed.
WHAT A MATCH!
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) December 31, 2023
Katie Boulter gets the biggest win of her career, beating #5 Jessica Pegula 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 from 0-3* down in the 2nd set.
BY FAR the best match I've seen her play.
GBR 1-0 USA
Norrie can qualify GBR for the QFs with a win over Fritz... pic.twitter.com/Ryvfrsi83k
This is the second singles match for Boulter at the 2024 United Cup who defeated Australian Ajla Tomljanovic 6-2, 6-4 in her first match. That was an impressive 1-hour 32-minute match for Boulter, but she elevated her play to take out the current World No. 5 Pegula.
Katie Boulter gets the biggest ranking win of her career, defeating No 5 Jessica Pegula 5-7 6-4 6-4 to give GB a 1-0 lead over USA in the United Cup.
— Tumaini Carayol (@tumcarayol) December 31, 2023
Pegula led 7-5 *3-0 but Boulter dragged herself back in with relentless, contained aggression. Forehand is looking huge.
The United States is the defending United Cup champion team. By going down 0-1 to Great Britain, the pressure will be on Taylor Fritz who will face Cameron Norrie to even things up so that Pegula and Fritz have an opportunity to win the best of three in mixed doubles.
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