Iga Swiatek bundles brilliant Boulter and Britain out of United Cup after epic
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Over the course of the past 18 months, by far the rewarding period in her blossoming career, Katie Boulter has gradually established herself as one of the best tennis players in the world. She has won noteworthy titles, defeated top opponents and embedded herself inside the top 30.
![[Iga Swiatek celebrates winning her quarter-final United Cup match against Britain’s Katie Boulter .]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/a81fde5055bbb09fac29130862c68576e60d60aa/0_79_3000_1801/master/3000.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Yet no battle in her career has quite matched the delirium of an unforgettable night in Sydney when she went shot-for-shot with the greatest active women’s player, Iga Swiatek, and came so close to securing the biggest win of her career. After three hours of tennis of the highest quality, Swiatek somehow survived a brilliant performance from Boulter, winning 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-4 to secure a 2-0 win for Poland over Great Britain and a spot in the semi-final of the United Cup.
Earlier on Thursday, Britain’s Billy Harris played a solid match but he was outclassed by the men’s No 16 Hubert Hurkacz, who closed out a tough 7-6 (3), 7-5 win to secure Poland’s first win of the tie. “I’m just exhausted, you know?” said Swiatek, the world No 2. “I’m happy that I won so I don’t need to play mixed doubles. This match was crazy. So many changes of momentum. I thought I had it under control in the first set but for sure I got tight and didn’t work on it. But then I did not want to repeat the same mistake in the third.”.
Having finished her 2024 season by reaching a new career high ranking of No 23, Boulter started the new year in strong form, registering two dominant wins over lesser opponents as she led Great Britain out of their round robin group despite the late withdrawal of the British men’s No 1 Jack Draper. Her reward for those efforts was a shot at Swiatek, one of the great challenges in professional tennis today.
