One of the great challenges of professional tennis is how quickly the sport moves on. No matter how great an achievement is, how well a player performs, a new week brings a new tournament, conditions and, most of all, new opponents with even more motivation to hit you off the court.
Three days after by far the greatest achievement of her career so far, winning her first WTA 500 title in San Diego and rising into the world top 30, Katie Boulter faced that challenge in full. In the first round of Indian Wells, she was swiftly brought back down to earth by Camila Giorgi, who dismantled her 6-3, 6-2 in 78 minutes to advance.
Andy Murray, meanwhile, played one of his best matches of the season to move into the second round in California with a dominant 6-3, 6-2 win over David Goffin. As Murray tries to find some form after a difficult start to the season, he will face Andrey Rublev, the fifth seed, in the second round on Friday.
Based on form, Boulter entered the court in Indian Wells heavily favoured to beat the Italian, who has struggled badly since last year and fell out of the top 100 this week to No 106, her lowest ranking since 2013. But Giorgi, a former top 30 player and champion at the WTA 1000 event in Montreal three years ago, can hit practically anyone off-court when in full flow.
Six years ago, ahead of facing Serena Williams in the 2018 Wimbledon quarter-finals, Giorgi was asked for her impressions of the 23-time grand slam champion’s game. She responded: “I don’t follow tennis.” Giorgi focuses only on herself and few players on the tour are as determined to demolish every single ball as she does.
When the 32-year-old is off form, the results can be catastrophic, but Wednesday marked one of her brilliant days. From the beginning, Giorgi took control of the baseline, crushing the ball off both wings, forcing Boulter back as she dictated most exchanges.
With Giorgi consistently rushing her by taking such huge cuts at the ball off both wings, an extremely flat Boulter simply could not keep up. Her own errors began to pile up, she struggled with her serve and she became increasingly passive as the match wore on. Having lost her serve relatively early in both sets, Boulter spent much of the match just trying to hang on and was unable to properly settle.
Boulter, who would have been seeded if the WTA had used this week’s rankings for the main draw, has shown she can perform at a high level and string matches together against top opposition, but the next challenge is learning how to do so week in, week out, regardless of the conditions or opponent across the net. Thankfully for her, the fast-paced nature of professional tennis works both ways; she will have another opportunity in a few weeks at the Miami Open.
Jack Draper, meanwhile, was unable to back up his own recent progress in a frustrating first‑round defeat by Christopher O’Connell of Australia, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. Draper had arrived in Indian Wells in great form, having reached the semi-finals in Acapulco last week with a top‑20 win against the world No 14 Tommy Paul. The 22-year-old fell to the eventual champion Alex de Minaur, retiring with illness in the final set.
Early on in the Californian desert, Draper seemed to have carried his great form into Indian Wells as he effortlessly rolled through the first set. But Draper lost his way from the beginning of the second set, the momentum sharply swinging as he immediately went down 0-3.
The British player served poorly for the rest of the match and he paid for his passiveness on Indian Wells’s notoriously slow courts, his Australian opponent baiting him into too many long rallies and outplaying him in the final set.
