By Tony Fairbairn at Wimbledon
- Katie Boulter and Liam Broady reflected on the lack of ranking points and the plan ahead of the US Open after reaching third round at Wimbledon
- Harmony Tan def Katie Boulter 6-1 6-1
- Alex De Minaur [19] def Liam Broady [WC] 6-3 6-4 7-5
LONDON, ENGLAND – Katie Boulter and Liam Broady display honesty and frustration after their third round performances at Wimbledon isn’t rewarded with ranking points and they discussed how that impacts their US Open plans.
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Katie Boulter and Liam Broady have both been grinding it on the tour as reaching main draws of grand slams hasn’t come natural to them in the past. For Boulter recent performances has meant that she’s become less reliant on wildcards as she has produced big wins on the tour to improve her ranking. While Broady has improved his last year and gradually been climbing the rankings to a point where he has been on the verge of a place in the world’s top 100.
This week in Wimbledon Boulter and Broady have been top 20 players Karolina Pliskova and Diego Schwartzman respectively to put themselves into the third round of Wimbledon for the first time in their careers. Both players fell to contrasting third round defeats to Harmony Tan and Alex De Minaur respectively as their Wimbledon journeys came to an end.
In a normal world both players would both be looking forward to seeing where their 90 ranking points would see them placed after Wimbledon. However this year it’s a bit different because the ATP and WTA have decided to not award ranking points as a result of Wimbledon banning Russian and Belarusian players from participating at this year’s tournament.
Boulter taking positives
For Boulter this means instead of being on the brink of the top 100 and earning an automatic place into the US Open main draw, she now sits at 126 in the world with work to do in the coming weeks. After her crushing defeat to Tan Boulter reflected on earning no ranking points and admitted she will be smart with her schedule:
“It’s a really tough one. Of course I would have loved to have taken some ranking points this week. I’d be lying if I sat here and said I didn’t,” Boulter admitted.
“But again, I came into the tournament knowing that. I played the tournament because it’s Wimbledon, the biggest tournament of the year for me. I’ve got a lot to take from it. I’ve got so many positives. I know the ranking is going to take care of itself. I truly believe that. I’m going in the right direction. If I can continue to win matches week in, week out like I have been doing the past few weeks, I think I’ll be in a very good place by the end of the year. I’ll get my opportunity, and I’ll use the positives from this week to spur me on for the next ones.
“I’ll be smart. That’s one of the biggest things for me that I’ve learnt over the years. I’m going to have to be smart with the weeks that I play, not doing too many in a row. I’ll be ready for quallies this year.
“If it’s this year, next year, whatever year it might be, it’s a privilege to play the tournament at all. You never know, hopefully I can do what Emma did last year. Hey, we’re a long way away from that and I’m just going to go out there and enjoy myself.”
Boulter’s momentum in recent weeks means that if she can take this momentum into the US swing then she will have a big rankings swing come the end of the season. Speaking more on her defeat Boulter admitted it was emotional exhaustion that caught up with her today:
“I think I may have seen it coming a little bit. I started to reach my emotional and physical point where I was struggling a little bit this morning in the warmup,” Boulter said.
“I think I’m just a little bit emotionally drained, if I’m honest. It’s been a long few weeks. I’m not going to even talk about this week. I think this week was the cherry on top. But I’ve been working so hard for a long period of time, getting through an injury to start with is a huge, huge struggle, and I made it through, and I’m here and played some amazing tennis week in, week out. I’ve played a lot of matches. I sort of went from zero to a hundred quite quickly.
“This week has probably been the tipping point. I’ve played some great matches. It’s also been very emotional. I think today was one step too far for me.”
Broady aiming for US Open ‘dream’
As for Broady he would have gained 45 points in normal circumstances and most likely would have entered the top 100. However as it happens Broady will go down to 136 in the world and although the decision didn’t make any sense to the Brit, he’s only focused of achieving a lifelong dream which is a place in the main draw of the US Open:
“I mean, it is pretty tough. I’m not sure if it was the right solution in the end,” Broady admitted in his press conference.
“I’m not saying that anybody’s in the right or the wrong about who took points, who gave points and so on. It doesn’t make sense to not protect the points from last year at least. I don’t know. It was a bit of an odd one.
“Like I said, everyone knew coming here what the deal was with the points and stuff. I’d have preferred to have lost in the third round of Wimbledon and not be getting any points than to have lost first round. I can only be pleased.
“US Open main draw has been a dream of mine for a long time. I have probably had the least success there in my pro career. The conditions are amazing. For you guys who have been to the tournament, it’s pretty awesome. You stay in Manhattan, you’re on the bus to Flushing Meadows every day. The venue is incredible. Obviously it would be nice to hang around there a little bit more than I usually do, definitely.”
For that to happen Broady will have to play a string of challenger/ATP 250 events to ensure his ranking is high enough to avoid having to qualify for the main draw in New York. Speaking about today’s gutsy defeat to De Minaur, Broady said he didn’t settle into the match quick enough:
“Yeah, felt like I probably didn’t settle as quickly as I would have liked,” Broady said.
“Probably end up getting into the rhythm of it once I was a break down in the third. Obviously against someone like Alex, he’s a world-class grass-courter, it’s a little bit too late. Then it will be too little too late. I thought he served really well, especially the first two sets.
“Maybe I didn’t return as well as I can, and everyone knows Alex is a class returner as it is. If you don’t serve well or if you don’t serve as well or return as well as your opponent, it’s going to be a tough day on the grass.”
Broady’s next scheduled tournament is due to be in Newport qualifying which begins next weekend.
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