Wimbledon Qualifying Day Two

British tennis player and 2011 Junior Davis Cup winner Evan Hoyt gives his expert perspective on the action from the Wimbledon qualifying tournament.

Inspired performance from Katie Boulter

On the opening day of the women's Wimbledon Qualifying event at the Bank of England, 17 year-old Katie Boulter took on former top 60 Italian, Alberta Brianti.  In an inspired performance, the young Brit lost the marathon match 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2.  The on form, Leicester born youngster, arrived on the court early in her whites attempting to cause a big upset.

It was the Italian who took the advantage early on, with an experienced start, claiming the first break of the match.  Boulter hit straight back with some powerful returning and heavy forehands to level; settling the inevitable first grand slam nerves. 

Boulter began to take charge of the opening set, outplaying her 34 year-old opponent to lead 3-1.  However, helped by several errors and some clever use of the slice from the Italian; Katie found herself serving to stay in the set at 3-5. After a great hold, the Brit had a good opportunity to level the first set, but the experienced Italian prevailed, taking it 6-4.

As a player having just lost an evenly contested first set, it's hugely important to calm yourself and begin strongly in the second set. Failure to do so can result in the match slipping away very quickly.

Returning to the court calm after a toilet break, the resilient Brit began with flair; big serves, crunching backhands and jumping forehands. She raced to a 3-0 lead, before the Italian scraped a service hold. Continued domination of the Italian helped secure a 5-2 lead.  Five well-contested games later, and chances gone both ways, the duo found themselves in a tiebreak.  Showing amazing resilience and shot-making ability, Boulter rallied her way back from 5-2 down in the tiebreak, to claim it 7-5, forcing the match to a decider.

The deflated looking Italian began the third and final set slowly, finding herself 0-30 in her opening service game.  A missed opportunity from the Brit at a crucial time allowed the Italian to get back into the match. Several more holds saw the final set levelled at 2-2. 

Break points gone amiss, Boulter found herself 5-2 down after three long games. The Italian’s fight having returned, she closed out the final set with some sublime trading from the back of the court to knock the young Brit out.

When asked about her pre-match nerves, Boulter admitted: "I wasn't too nervous before going on court, but I definitely felt some when I stepped on the court.”

Earlier in the day, 16 year-old Gabby Taylor became the first British woman to qualify for the second round when she dismissed the 19th seed, Sofia Arvidsson in emphatic fashion 6-1, 6-3.  Closely following Gabby's success, Emily Webley-Smith prevailed when her opponent, Spaniard Beatriz Garcia Vidagany retired when trailing 3-6, 6-4, 2-0. 

Elsewhere Katy Dunne fell at the hands of Austrian Tamira Paszek 6-4, 6-0, as did Jade Windley to German Carina Witthoft 7-5, 6-1.  Compatriot, Lisa Whybourn followed them out of the draw, being defeated by Danka Konivic of Montenegro 6-4, 6-1 while Freya Christy bowed out to Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-4, 6-2. 

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