Before her meeting with one of the most in-form players in the world, Katie Boulter reassured herself in all the right ways. All the pressure, she reasoned, would be on her opponent’s shoulders and nobody expected her to win, meaning this was the perfect chance to swing freely.
Even when playing with total freedom, toppling a confident top-10 player is an immense challenge. As the sun set over Margaret Court Arena, and Boulter attempted to impose her weapons in her first‑round match against the 10th seed Belinda Bencic, the former British No 1 was outclassed by the sensational Swiss, who closed out a comfortable 6-0, 7-5 win.
