Katie Boulter

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Katie Boulter

indiana · Tennis legend

Interesting re Katie's points.

Although yes a slowish start she's actually earned more points so far this year than she had up to now last year.

She has 140 from 5 counters this year as against 103 from 5 counters at this stage last year hence her current 665 points (WR 85) are 37 points more than the 628 points (WR 97) she ended last year with.

Dividing last year into pre GB grass season ( 103 points to this time last year plus 80 Japan 60K title points, due off 13/05 ), grass and post grass her counting points last year were :

Pre grass : 183 (6)
Grass : 245 (4)
Post grass : 200 (6)
Total : 628 (16)

So if she adds more than 43 further points before the GB grass season she will remain ahead of last year's points schedule.

So neither year started that fast. Just really no great runs but some decent wins. Both years slightly interrupted by Fed Cup duty and some good fighting performances in Fed Cup this year.

So in general yes we hope to see general progression and her to have a few more wins, it's still rather as I suggested recently, not bad and I'd say certainly not particularly concerning. I'd say in general some good performances but some less so and could do with more consistency as the year progresses.

Interesting re opting out of some early clay events, I can see both sides. But in general I'd be for her getting a fair amount of clay court play. I agree her suitability to clay is questionable but you need to play it to get better. And if that was to prove for now unsuccessful in points ( and she fell back from last year's pre grass points ) it's banked clay court experience for the future. And it is not as if it is vital for her to get Wimbledon direct entry. If she slips away from that clearly she will get a MD WC. As it is hopefully she at least does do well at her chosen 25K hard court event.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Interesting re Katie's points.

Although yes a slowish start she's actually earned more points so far this year than she had up to now last year.

She has 140 from 5 counters this year as against 103 from 5 counters at this stage last year hence her current 665 points (WR 85) are 37 points more than the 628 points (WR 97) she ended last year with.

Dividing last year into pre GB grass season ( 103 points to this time last year plus 80 Japan 60K title points, due off 13/05 ), grass and post grass her counting points last year were :

Pre grass : 183 (6)
Grass : 245 (4)
Post grass : 200 (6)
Total : 628 (16)

So if she adds more than 43 further points before the GB grass season she will remain ahead of last year"s points schedule.

So neither year started that fast. Just really no great runs but some decent wins. Both years slightly interrupted by Fed Cup duty and some good fighting performances in Fed Cup this year.

So in general yes we hope to see general progression and her to have a few more wins, it's still rather as I suggested recently, not bad and I'd say certainly not particularly concerning. I'd say in general some good performances but some less so and could do with more consistency as the year progresses..

Interesting re opting out of some early clay events, I can see both sides. But in general I'd be for her getting a fair amount of clay court play. I agree her suitability to clay is questionable but you need to play it to get better. And if that was to prove for now unsuccessful in points ( and she fell back from last year's pre grass points ) it's banked clay court experience for the future. And it is not as if it is vital for her to get Wimbledon direct entry. If she slips away from that clearly she will get a MD WC. As it is hopefully she at least does do well at her chosen 25K hard court event.

Yes, but she was also ranked 194-208 between Jan-April 2018, so her choices of tournaments were much lower and she largely had to concentrate on 25ks. She's a higher ranked player now, and hopefully better, so you'd certainly hope she would be doing (a lot) better than she was this time last year. Her hard work cracking the top 100 earned her a shot at a Makarova at the AO who was in the middle of a 6 match losing streak, plagued with injuries, and still hasn't won since the US Open last year and also hasn't played since Feb, so that's a very nice shot at 70 points, literally half her 2019 points haul (she wouldn't get that opportunity last year, she'd have to win 5 matches at her level just to get 50 points), and she actually has as many wins at the Fed Cup this year (5) as she does on the tour, which is poor whichever way you look at it.

She had an excellent grass season last year, not by a typical 150/160 (at the time) players standard, but by most players standard - 100k F, international QF, slam 2nd round and it will be very good going just to match that this year - it just needs her to draw a Kvitova, Kerber or Barty in Wimbledon round 1 instead of a Royg, who swiftly tumbled down the rankings post Wimbledon and is uncomfortable on grass, and those 70 points will be hard to defend.

She's obviously been ill, had injuries, Fed Cup heroics, pulled out of multiple events for a combination of those reasons and won't have played as many tournaments as she'd like, but she's 147th in the race (and that will slip even further in the next 10 days with further inactivity), which clearly isn't the place to be if you want to remain a top 100 player and get into the slams directly - it just means there's a lot more work to be done in the coming months and a few bad grass draws here and there and her actual ranking could sharp tumble lower than where she is in the race. I'd personally say no tour win since March 4th or only 2 since Jan 27th was a bit concerning.

Barefoot · Lower Club Player

But Ace, shes barely played. You cant win the matches you dont play. Playing weekly and still not winning is concerning.

I dont expect her to ever really play enough to optimise her ranking based on pure talent, but she is tour standard and I do suspect shes confident enough in her ability on grass especially to outperform whatever ranking she does have.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes "she's obviously been ill, had injuries, Fed Cup heroics and pulled out of multiple events for a combination of those reasons and won't have played as many tournaments as she'd like" may be a bit of a concern in itself and as Barefoot says she may never play quite as much as she would like.

But some of that is short term, eg Fed Cup, hopefully re injuries, and has a lot to do with "but she's 147th in the race ..."

She's also on a year round basis WR 85, so 3 places off her CH if yes with 130 points ( 50 + 80 ), net 126, due off by 13/05. This time last year she was WR 197. And her wins over top 100 players indicate indeed that she is tour standard.

I think a longer, wider picture is of more use than those first 4 months of this year. Let's see how she progresses over the year as a whole.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 25th of April 2019 08:24:45 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Barefoot wrote:
But Ace, shes barely played. You cant win the matches you dont play. Playing weekly and still not winning is concerning.

I dont expect her to ever really play enough to optimise her ranking based on pure talent, but she is tour standard and I do suspect shes confident enough in her ability on grass especially to outperform whatever ranking she does have.

Yeah, I totally acknowledge that (and actually did in the final paragraph). Her 2019 tour win loss record of 5-7 is still exactly the same as it was about 6 weeks ago, which is so-so, not brilliant, but not a disaster - she has 141 points from her 6 events (she was a LL in one, hence her 7 defeats) which isn't as economical as the likes of Muchova who has got 278 from her 5 events, Krejicova 207 points from 5 events, Kuckova 185 from 7, even Dart 182 from 6 events - I'd probably consider Katie better than all of those bar Muchova. I was talking about the start of the year in general, well actually not 'start of year' now as it's almost half a season, which is where it's more concerning, especially when it's not helped by the likes of Stuart Fraser recently writing that she can push for top 50 by end of Wimbledon, or Annabel Croft saying that ranking (of 85) is only going to go one way etc. when short to medium term, it's more likely to go the other way. unfortunately.

It's not as if she's had an obvious 2/3 month injury layoff either, that would be completely different. She was fit enough to play Fed Cup (which I get is a massive honour and that will probably be one of the highlights of her career when she looks back), but that in turn obviously ruled her out of playing qualifiers for WTA events this week and looks as if it has subsequently put her out of ITF action next week as well. She was also pulling out of Shrewsbury 60k around the time of Bath, so she could have actually played more tour matches which also needs to be taken into account.

My main point was, you have a player who recently broke into the top 100, which are obviously few and far between in this country, and there was genuine hope that she could push on a bit further, but her 2019 (outside of FC) has clearly not gone as well as she or others would have hoped for a number of reasons. I do also fear her full true potential may be held back by her health, but just as a point of analysis, as many on this board like to do, if you were assessing her year to date, then it clearly hasn't gone as well as you'd have expected around the time of that Makarova win.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Thursday 25th of April 2019 08:28:04 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Yes "she's obviously been ill, had injuries, Fed Cup heroics and pulled out of multiple events for a combination of those reasons and won't have played as many tournaments as she'd like" may be a bit of a concern in itself and as Barefoot says she may never play quite as much as she would like.

But some of that is short term, eg Fed Cup, hopefully re injuries, and has a lot to do with "but she's 147th in the race ..."

She's also on a year round basis WR 85, so 3 places off her CH if yes with 130 points ( 50 + 80 ), net 126, due off by 13/05. This time last year she was WR 197. And her wins over top 100 players indicate indeed that she is tour standard.

I think a longer, wider picture is of more use than those first 4 months of this year. Let's see how she progresses over the year as a whole.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 25th of April 2019 08:24:45 PM

Yes, absolutely. It will be interesting to see where she is in October/November and if she is still around 85 and safely in the top 100 then I'll personally be happy.

I suppose she's pretty much nailed on to play Eastbourne this year (health/fitness permitting obviously) so that should be two attempts to give a Premier grass event a good go, and a strong run in either of those and her year will sharp pick up.

indiana · Tennis legend

Deleted - didn't take some things into account and not into rewriting at this time of night.

I've probably said enough anyway.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 25th of April 2019 10:17:56 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
Deleted - didn't take some things into account and not into rewriting at this time of night.

I've probably said enough anyway.

-- Edited by indiana on Thursday 25th of April 2019 10:17:56 PM

I was happy to leave it as it was, but was also halfway through another long reply. wink

I certainly don't want to come across as a Katie antagonist as she's genuinely one of my favourite current GB players, she's fresh, young, big game and if she does well and improves further, then she'll be great for the profile of the women's game and game in general here. I'm hoping she has another successful grass season and if she does just as well as last year, or even better, then the next long post I write will be a lot more positive biggrin .

indiana · Tennis legend

Ha, sorry about that.

I had just deleted my post ( mainly to do with stuff re the Makarova win at the time of the Aus Open that I had missed reading ) as I have the power to do that without it showing

Then I noticed that you were online so wrote up that I had deleted a post to try and save any confusion re where did that go?

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

smile

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

https://twitter.com/stu_fraser/status/1125451413121847297

Sad news, Katie out of the French Open and a doubt for Wimbledon. cry

the addict · Tennis legend

Some bad news about Katie...........

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/katie-boulters-fed-cup-efforts-could-cost-her-wimbledon-place-xlqrt7cbd

"Katie Boulters recent Fed Cup heroics have come at a price. The British No 2 has been ruled out of the French Open and is a doubt for Wimbledon after a back injury turned out to be more serious than initially feared."

Edit:- Ace and I saw the same post !

-- Edited by the addict on Monday 6th of May 2019 05:33:40 PM

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

It's really grim. These coming weeks/months be the highlight of most British players season. A big pay cheque if nothing else at the French Open and then all the home grass events, some of them very local to her.

Gutted for her, but hopefully she bounces back stronger.

indiana · Tennis legend

Oh drat

Really hope that she can get back for at least some of the grass season. All the best to her.