Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu have capped off a day full of British wins at The Championships, Wimbledon after coming through their opening round matches.
Boulter fought back in the deciding set to overcome world No.9 Paula Badosa 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 – marking the biggest upset of the day by ranking.
Meanwhile, British No.1 Raducanu opened up her campaign with a straight sets victory over fellow Brit and wild card Mimi Xu, winning 6-3, 6-3.
Their victories now mean seven Brits have secured spots in the second round at Wimbledon – the most successful day in the Open Era – after Sonay Kartal, Cam Norrie, Billy Harris, Arthur Fery and qualifier Oliver Tarvet all clocked wins earlier on in the day.
Boulter’s first round clash against ninth seed Badosa stole the headlines when the draw was made just a few days ago. The British No.2 has had a mixed start to her grass court season, but took the week leading up to the tournament to focus her full attention on Wimbledon, and the gamble well and truly paid off.
The 28-year-old’s win over the Spaniard marked her fourth career-win over a top 10 player and will fuel her with plenty of confidence heading into her next meeting against lucky loser Solana Sierra.
“I think I got one of my first ones (top 10 wins) against (Karolina) Pliskova on this court and when I stepped out it reminded me of that from the first ball,” she said in her on-court interview. “I just felt like I had some really good juju going on there. I played some really good stuff and happy to be through to the next round.
“This court is what every British child dreams about playing on and winning on. For me it’s a dream come true every time I get to step out here. I saw the scheduling and I was so excited – I felt like a little girl again. I’m happy to be through and glad I got the win today.”
After quickly pocketing the opening set in just 33 minutes, Boulter looked to be well on her way to clinching a dominating first round win before a spirited Badosa kick-started the comeback in the second.
Badosa has had a standout year so far, and showed glimpses of the form that carried her to the semi-finals of the Australian Open back in January. The former Indian Wells champion ramped up the intensity and made the most of her chances as she broke the Brit twice on her way to levelling the scoreboard.
The Spanish No.1 looked to carry the momentum into the decider – capitalising on her fifth break point in the opening game before the British No.2 recovered the deficit immediately in a gruelling game to hang firm.
When the pressure was on, Boulter was the one who stood firm. Serving at 5-4 down the errors kept coming off the Badosa racket to set up three match points and eventually the ninth seed buried the ball in the net once more to seal a fourth career top 10 win for Boulter.
Meanwhile, Raducanu faced her own battle over on Court 1 as she took on a resilient Xu who was competing on the biggest stage of her career to date.
Speaking on court after her win, Raducanu said how proud she was to overcome the challenges throughout the match and credits the home crowd for carrying her through some of the tougher moments.
“I’m super pleased to have come through that match,” she smiled. “It’s so difficult playing another Brit in the first round, when the draw came out I can’t say I was loving it. Mimi is a really dangerous player, she’s so young and she’s got some amazing weapons at her disposal.
“I’m really happy to have come through that and I just want to thank everyone for the support on both sides, it was a really nice atmosphere.
“I think I had really good patches and then I had some patches where I lost my focus and Mimi was able to come back. I’m really happy how I toughed it out in the crucial games and won the important points today.”
