Katie Boulter believes the six British women in this year’s singles draw can force their way into the world’s top 100 and make a mark at Wimbledon.
New British No1 Boulter’s own ambitions get underway on Tuesday, against Daria Saville — and the 26-year-old believes the Brits are on the rise on the WTA Tour.
“Each and every one of these girls can be inside [the top] 100,” she said. “These girls are getting wins against top-100 players.”
Boulter replaced Emma Raducanu in the British top spot after the first WTA Tour title of her career last month at Nottingham, where she beat Jodie Burrage in an all-British final. Raducanu is missing this year’s Wimbledon after undergoing surgery on both her wrists and her ankle.
Along with Boulter and Burrage, the other British women in the draw are Harriet Dart, Heather Watson, Katie Swan and Sonay Kartal.
Boulter had a run to the third round at Wimbledon last year, beating former finalist Karolina Pliskova in the second round. And she has promised to make a similar impact this year.
“Whatever happens on court, I’ll be fighting,” she said. “I’m feeling good and looking forward to competing.”
Meanwhile, Heather Watson reached the fourth round a year ago but faces a tough opener tomorrow against No16 seed Barbora Krejcikova. Watson said: “The memories I made last year, I definitely want more of that.”
She suffered from not picking up any ranking points after the ATP and WTA Tours withdrew them following the ban by Wimbledon on Russian and Belarusian players.
“It went from like the best two weeks in my career to [going] back into qualifiers for grand slams,” she said. “It was pretty tough.”
