Katie Boulter downs American No 2 and takes biggest scalp of career

Her victory over Jessica Pegula in the United Cup gives hope that she will be able to climb beyond her current best ranking of 56

Katie Boulter started the new season at a gallop as she took down the American No 2, Jessica Pegula, in a thrilling three-setter in Perth. 
This is perhaps not the biggest scalp that the British No 1 has ever collected, as she scored back-to-back grass-court wins over former Wimbledon finalist Karolina Pliskova in the summer of 2022. But it is the best win on ranking, given that Pliskova stood at No 7 in the world at the time, while Pegula is now at No 5. 
Boulter’s 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory took place not at a conventional knockout tournament but at the United Cup, a team competition that roughly replicates the old Hopman Cup – with the one significant difference that it has tour points on offer. National teams play three rubbers – one women’s singles, one men’s singles and one mixed doubles – to decide the overall victor of the tie. 
Unfortunately for Great Britain, the United States managed to equalise through Taylor Fritz, who defeated Cameron Norrie, and then edged through in a tight mixed doubles that went to a deciding-set tie-break. To return to Boulter, her success was all the more admirable because she dropped the first set against one of the form players of 2023. 
Indeed, Pegula had won the last 52 matches in which she took the first set, so this was the first time she had been overturned from that position since Ons Jabeur staged a similar comeback in November 2022. 
Boulter said: “I felt like I played some really good stuff. I get a lot of confidence from it, I’ve done the work during pre-season and I was very happy with it. I feel like a different player than I was a year ago. I wanted to get some wins by rankings.” 
The result will fuel hopes that Boulter can keep climbing from her present career-best ranking of No 56. Her inspiration, she said in a recent interview, comes from her Australian boyfriend – world No 12 Alex de Minaur, whom Norrie happened to beat when Great Britain overcame the home team in the United Cup on Friday. 
Meanwhile, the highest-profile British woman, Emma Raducanu, will soon be making her return from a nine-month lay-off against her best friend on the tour, Gabriela Ruse, who shares her Romanian ancestry. Raducanu has never faced Ruse before in an official match, but they played a light-hearted exhibition at the Albert Hall soon after Raducanu’s miraculous US Open triumph in 2021, which she won 6-3, 7-6. The ASB Classic match is due to be played in Auckland in the small hours of tomorrow morning, UK time.