Unseeded Katie Boulter pulled off her fifth straight match win over a higher-ranked player as she upset Marta Kostyuk 5-7 6-2 6-2 in the San Diego Open final to claim her second title on the Hologic WTA Tour.
In her San Diego debut, the 27-year-old Boulter defeated Lesia Tsurenko, second seed Beatriz Haddad Maia, seventh seed Donna Vekic, third seed Emma Navarro, and lastly the sixth-seeded Kostyuk to win her first WTA 500 title and second overall, after she triumphed at the WTA 250-level grass-court tournament in Nottingham last season. All Boulter’s opponents in San Diego were Top 50 players, so she increased her career tally of Top 50 victories from nine to 14 in a one-week period.
In the final, Boulter initially grappled with a series of unforced errors in the opening set, seemingly unsettled by Kostyuk’s speed and agility. However, displaying the resilience that would define her performance, Boulter fought off six set points before falling on the seventh one with a double fault. Undaunted, Boulter regrouped and found her stride, relatively comfortably winning the next two sets by breaking Kostyuk’s serve five times.
The WTA player from Leicester had her boyfriend, Alex de Minaur, in the stands. De Minaur, who had just defended his title in Acapulco, rushed to make an…
