- Raducanu won the first set before the match was suspended on Saturday.
- Defending champion Boulter fought back to win in three sets and advance
- Now she will face Karolína Pliskova in the final of the WTA 250 tournament
Defending champion Katie Boulter is back in the Nottingham Open final after beating Emma Raducanu in an all-British two-day bout.
A semi-final that began under a slate gray sky and was held overnight due to the dangers of a rain-spattered surface concluded in the sunshine on Sunday – the first to smile at the Rothesay Open all week.
And in the faster conditions provided by the good weather, Boulter tore through Raducanu, coming back from a set down to win 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. The fantastic year of the world number 30 continues and today she will face the former world number 1 and Wimbledon finalist, Karolina Pliskova, in the final.
“What a game,” Boulter said later on the court. “She is an incredible player and she is going to get better and better.” She makes it very difficult to close it. I’m happy to have made it through today. I’m really proud of myself.
“I just need you guys to help me get over the line on the next one.”
Katie Boulter came back from a set down to beat Emma Raducanu in the semi-finals of the Nottingham Open
Raducanu had led by a set overnight, but was unable to stop Boutler from counterattacking.
Boulter will have the opportunity, for the second time this year, to win a title on the same day as her boyfriend Alex de Minaur, who won in ‘s Hertogenbosch just before this semi-final began. The Australian, now ranked No. 7 in the world, made a mad dash from Acapulco to San Diego in March to see Boulter the last time they did the double. His eyes will be peeled for another surprise addition to his playing roster this afternoon.
British tennis hopes this is not the last time Raducanu and Boulter meet in the latter stages of events. This was effectively the British duo’s first meeting; the only previous one came at a modest ITF-level event in Solapur, when the 17-year-old Raducanu withdrew with an injury after losing the first set.
The confrontation is interesting: Raducanu, 21 years old, has a superior backhand and moves with more speed and lightness of step; Boulter, 27, has much greater weight in the forehand shot and in the serve.
There was barely a racquet string’s width to separate these two in Saturday night’s first set when, with no breaks in serve, Raducanu won a top-level tiebreaker 15-13 on his sixth set point.
Play resumed in benign but windy conditions, and Raducanu especially seemed to struggle to control the delivery of the ball on his serve at times. There were no break points until the seventh game, when Boulter forced four and after saving three, Raducanu double faulted – the first time either player’s serve was broken in the entire match.
Easy power is an overused phrase in tennis, but that’s exactly what Boulter has. Especially on a grass court, he only has to touch the ball to send it flying for a winning goal.
Boulter had another break point in Raducanu’s first service game in the deciding set; Had his backhand not landed just beyond the baseline, one felt that would have been it.
Boulter will face Karolina Pliskova in the final as she attempts to defend her title today.
There was a flurry of breaks as Boulter struggled to kill his opponent. But when Raducanu served to stay in the match, Boulter finally got the job done, fittingly finishing with a fluid backhand winner.
For Raducanu, this continued to be a strong week, with a couple of comfortable wins. His decision to skip the French Open qualifying event was controversial, but his form suggests the time on the practice courts he prioritized was well spent. Raducanu and coach Nick Cavaday (he was on court this weekend after missing the start of the week due to illness) shortened his service motion and the reworked action seemed very effective.
In short, a good start to the grass season for the British female protagonists.