Before her meeting with one of the most in-form tennis 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 opportunity 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 a sensational Bencic, who confidently closed out a comfortable 6-0, 7-5 win.
This was a statement first-round performance from Bencic, who has started the season 6-0 for the first time in her career and has established herself as a genuine title contender in Melbourne. “She belongs in the top 10,” said Boulter. “She’s a very unique player that you don’t get a chance to practice against too much. She kind of makes you almost have to rush and play shots that you don’t normally play and kind of go for broke a little bit.”
Bencic is a master at holding her position on the baseline and using her immaculate timing and hand-eye coordination to take the ball early and deflect her opponents’ pace. Unfortunately for Boulter, her linear, one-note flat ball striking completely fed into Bencic’s game. The 28-year-old smothered Boulter with her relentless depth, shot tolerance and effortless ability to change directions off both wings. Bencic was flawless throughout the first set, striking just three unforced errors throughout and completely dominating all rallies longer than three shots.
Still, Boulter fought hard and began to find rhythm on her serve early in set two and her excellent serving allowed her to strike first and shorten points. She played a good set, going toe-to-toe with her opponent for much of it, even retrieving Bencic’s break to establish a 5-4 lead. However, Bencic is playing with such confidence; in the tight moments late in set two, she elevated her level on the decisive points and closed out a solid victory without hesitation. “I take confidence in [set two]. I think I raised my game a lot more in the second, and that’s closer to the game style I’ve been playing recently and finding my identity again. Seeing where I win points against players like that is important as well because it reminds me how I can play and where I’m going to have to improve as well.”
Boulter now sits at No 113 in the WTA rankings, far away from her career high of No 23 in 2024. As a consequence of that diminished ranking, her schedule for the coming months is far less certain than in recent years. She will have to enter qualifying draws in order to compete on WTA events while also likely dropping down to some lower level tournaments. For some players, this can be tough to swallow after spending such a significant amount of time easily entering the vast majority of tour events. Boulter sees the next step of her career as an exciting challenge.
“I’m actually quite excited for it,” she said. “I think I’m eager to get out and play loads of matches. I’m not pressured about playing qualifying in any tournaments. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to play back-to-back days, getting my body back to being used to playing five matches. It’s really important. Ultimately last year it was very bitty, so I never really found I got that rhythm of just match play. You know, with the two-week tournaments as well you have such a long period of time between tournaments, so you kind of lose a rhythm. So I’m actually very excited to go and play some tournaments, even lower ones.”
Elsewhere, the two-time champion Naomi Osaka survived a serious scare before rallying from a break down in the final set to defeat Antonia Ruzic of Croatia 6-3, 3-6 6-4. After easing through the opening set, things began to fall apart for an increasingly tense Osaka, the 16th seed, who soon trailed 3-4 in the final set. She reeled off the final three games to seal her victory.
By reaching the second round, Osaka has also offered herself another chance to wear one of her most dramatic outfits yet. Osaka entered Rod Laver Arena in an all-white outfit complete with a massive hat, a large umbrella and train veil, which she said was inspired by a jellyfish. She then stripped off the outer layers to reveal her more conventional competition outfit.
Elena Rybakina, the fifth seed and recent WTA Finals champion, eased into the second round with a routine 6-4, 6-3 win over Kaja Juvan. Sonay Kartal endured a frustrating day on court as she suffered a 7-6(3), 6-1 defeat by the 31st seed Anna Kalinskaya.
