Katie Boulter came close to taking the biggest scalp of her career on Friday in a three-set defeat to former world No1 Karolina Pliskova at the Tianjin Open.
Boulter, who is ranked 101 in the world, won the opening set and was a break up in the decider at 2-0 only for her Czech opponent to rally and win the quarter-final clash 5-7, 6-0, 6-3.
For the 22-year-old, though, there was some consolation as she will rise into the world’s top 100 for the first time on Monday.
Pliskova was full of praise for Boulter, saying: “After those two matches which she won [in the earlier rounds], I think she was feeling pretty good. But I put on the speed in the second and third set and it was just enough.
“I did some aces and played more aggressive, I thought, and she didn’t have much time to play her game and that was the difference.”
In Boulter’s first match-up on tour against a top-10 player, she equipped herself well, dominating with her forehand to break Pliskova’s opening service game.
Pliskova broke back twice and had the chance to serve for the opening set at 5-4 only to be broken again, from which Boulter rounded off the set. As Pliskova upped her power game, Boulter had no answer in a bagel in the second set before briefly rallying in the third until her opponent upped the aggression again.
Meanwhile, Kyle Edmund’s hopes of qualifying for the ATP World Finals in London next month were effectively ended after a 6-4, 6-4 quarter-final defeat to Alexander Zverev at the Shanghai Masters.
Edmund lost his opening service game and struggled to get back into the set, while the pair were once again separated by a solitary break in the second set for a fairly routine win for the German.
