Tennis News: Katie Boulter and Carlos Alcaraz

Katie Boulter lived one of the best weeks she could last week. She won the San Diego Open, continuing a good run of tennis to begin 2024 which has helped get her to her highest personal ranking on the WTA tour of 27. The final was her first since last June when she won the Rothesay Open. But she also got to share her success with her boyfriend, Alex de Minaur.

De Minaur was winning his own tournament. For the second straight year, he took home the trophy for the Mexico Open, and de Minaur himself has had a great season so far. In fact, he skipped the post-tournament ceremonial bash so he could catch a flight to watch Boulter in San Diego. That was a nice gesture.

But how did Boulter respond to de Minaur's victory in Mexico? With joking callousness. On her Instagram account, she wrote of de Minaur's win, "Back-to-back is ridiculous behaviour." Nothing wrong with a nice, loving scolding, I imagine.

Katie Boulter throws shade and Carlos Alcaraz gets some harsh truth

Speaking of scolding, Alexander Zverev has taken Carlos Alcaraz to the proverbial woodshed five of the eight times the two players have faced each other. This includes Zverev beating Alcaraz in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Australian Open in four sets. Three of the sets were not truly that close, either. The German has won the last two meetings.

This might be why Alcaraz's coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, does not think that the young Spaniard's biggest rivalries are solely against Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic but against Zverev, too. Speaking with Marca recently, Ferrero said, "Alcaraz has lost several times against Zverev, a rival to always take into consideration...All rivals deserve the utmost respect. It is clear that Djokovic and Sinner are the ones who (play) consistently their best level."

Zverev has always had the skill to battle for being ranked No. 1 on the ATP tour. He has been held back by a bad ankle injury or a shock loss. He moves around the court better than most players and his game is versatile enough to win on hardcourts or clay. One reason he has been able to defeat Alcaraz is that Zverev has no fear of the young player as many other players seem to.

Still, one might assume who many people would root for in a big match at the close of a major tournament. That likely is not the German.

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