One of the great challenges of professional tennis is how quickly the sport is developing. No matter how great a performance, no matter how well a player performs, a new week brings a new tournament, new circumstances and, above all, new opponents with even more motivation to knock you off the field.
Three days after by far the greatest achievement of her career to date, winning her first WTA 500 title in San Diego and moving into the world top 30, Katie Boulter took on the challenge head on. In the first round of Indian Wells, she was quickly brought back down to earth by Camila Giorgi, who dismantled her 6-3, 6-2 in 78 minutes to advance.
On the strength of his form, Boulter took the court at Indian Wells heavily favored to beat the Italian, who has struggled since last year and fell out of the top 100 this week to No. 106, her lowest ranking since 2013 But de Giorgi, a former top 30 player and champion at the WTA 1000 event in Montreal three years ago, can hit just about anyone off the court when he’s in full swing.
Six years ago, ahead of facing Serena Williams in the 2018 Wimbledon quarter-finals, Giorgi was asked for her impressions of the 23-time Grand Slam champion’s match. She replied: “I don’t follow tennis.” Giorgi focuses only on himself and few players on tour are as determined to destroy every ball as she is.
When the 32-year-old is out of form the results can be catastrophic, but Wednesday was one of her brilliant days. From the start, Giorgi took control of the baseline, crushing the ball from both wings, forcing Boulter back as she dictated most of the exchanges.
With Giorgi constantly rushing her by making such huge cuts into the ball from both wings, an extremely flat Boulter simply couldn’t keep up. Her own mistakes piled up, she struggled with her serve and she became increasingly passive as the match progressed. Having lost her serve relatively early in both sets, Boulter spent much of the match trying to hold on and was unable to properly settle down.
Boulter, who would have been seeded had the WTA used this week’s rankings for the main draw, has shown she can perform at a high level and string together matches against the highest opponents, but the next challenge is to learn how to have to do this this week. , move away, regardless of the conditions or opponent on the other side of the net. Luckily for her, the fast-paced nature of professional tennis works both ways; In a few weeks she will get another chance at the Miami Open.
Meanwhile, Jack Draper failed to match his own recent progress as he suffered a frustrating first-round defeat, losing 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 to Christopher O’Connell of Australia.
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Draper himself had arrived at Indian Wells in great form, having reached the semi-finals in Acapulco last week with a top 20 win over world number 14 Tommy Paul. The 22-year-old fell to eventual champion Alex de Minaur and retired in the final set due to illness.
Early in the Californian desert, Draper appeared to have transferred his great form to Indian Wells as he rolled effortlessly through the first set. But Draper lost his way from the start of the second set, with the momentum swinging sharply and him immediately going down 0-3. He served poorly for the rest of the match and paid for his passivity on the notoriously slow courts of Indian Wells, with the Australian luring him into too many long rallies and outsmarting him in the final set.