Boulter's Wimbledon dream dashed by ruthless Rybakina

By Will Jennings at Wimbledon

Katie Boulter's Wimbledon hopes were shredded by ruthless Elena Rybakina’s ‘weapon’ of a serve and power-packed gameplan, according to the ice-cool Kazakh and defending All England Club champion.

The British No.1, 26, was the last home singles player remaining in the draw but was comprehensively dismantled in under an hour by red-hot third seed Rybakina.

Rybakina required just 26 minutes to win the first set and after an equally emphatic second, rifled her way to a stunning 6-1 6-1 victory to batter the Brit’s dream of reaching the last 16 on a jam-packed Centre Court.

On a rain-affected day in SW19, both players were made to wait until almost 9pm to take to the turf after Carlos Alcaraz and Ons Jabeur had won elongated encounters earlier in the afternoon.

But when proceedings finally got underway in front of a partisan home crowd, Rybakina was in no mood for messing around and delivered a dazzling, utterly dominant display.

She swatted Boulter aside in just 56 minutes and admits keeping her focus and a laser-sharp service game kept her hopes of defending her title alive.

“I played really well from the beginning to the end – it was a long day for us and I heard some support,” she said.

“I’m looking forward to the next round.

“I knew it was going to be a tough one – I knew people would be supporting Katie overall I’m just happy that I was focussed from the beginning to the end.

"My coach has done some adjustments every day. I always want to improve – I’m really happy with my serve and it’s a really big weapon in my game.

“I was just waiting, watching the other guys and how they played – it was a really long day and not easy, but we got used to the situation and we were prepared for that.”

After an all-action, rain-affected Saturday in SW19, the atmosphere was electric when Boulter and her opponent took to the hallowed Centre Court turf under the roof.

Earlier in the day, men’s top seed and world No.1 Alcaraz had battled past Chilean Nicolas Jarry in a gruelling encounter that lasted almost exactly four hours while straight after, Tunisian trailblazer and 2022 runner-up Jabeur fought from behind to beat 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu.

Boulter has had an eventful week at the All England Club and knew she was in for a stern test against the no-nonsense, Moscow-born Rybakina.

Her first round clash against Australian Daria Saville on Wednesday was delayed by a second Just Stop Oil protest of the afternoon when an intruder ran invaded the Court 18 premises and threw orange-coloured confetti and jigsaw pieces from a 'Centre Court View' puzzle box all over the playing surface.

After the protester was escorted off by police, Boulter and her opponent, 29, helped court stewards and ball boys clear the debris before the contest resumed around 10 minutes later.

And the impromptu delay seemed to work wonders for Boulter, who was 4-2 down in a first set tie-break at the time but stirringly turned the tables to win the next five points, storm into a one-set lead and then breeze to a comfortable victory.

She then navigated her way past belligerent Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova, ranked ten places lower than her in the world, on a partisan Court 12 the following day to tee up a tantalising Saturday night date with Rybakina.

But speaking of dates, in the meantime came a mixed doubles outing with Australian boyfriend and world No.17 Alex de Minaur, with the couple fittingly joining forces to topple fellow Aussies Storm Sanders and John Peers on Friday night.

That meant Boulter was coming into her blockbuster third round clash with considerable tennis under her belt but sadly, she was unable to translate any of that form onto the big Centre Court stage.

Rybakina simply proved too hot to handle and needed under half an hour to get the first set done and dusted.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more dominant set of tennis as Rybakina out-thought, out-manoeuvred and out-powered her opponent to prove exactly why she is the reigning champion at sport’s most famous postcode.

After the Kazakh held her serve to grab the first game, Boulter did the same to restore parity in front of a pumped-up home crowd.

Rybakina held again but then came that crucial blow in the fourth, with Boulter saving one break point before her streetwise opponent did not prove so generous at the second opportunity.

The third seed’s forehands were sent down at searing pace and after Rybakina held to open up a three-game advantage, she broke once again in the sixth to put herself on the brink of a one-set lead.

Rybakina was proving impossible to live with and seized the opener in under half an hour to give Boulter a mountain to climb.

The Brit needed to urgently halt the momentum but the barrage continued in the second set when Rybakina grabbed her third break of the match in the very first game.

It came in slightly fortuitous circumstances as her forehand rattled the net and went over – but that only added salt into the wounds as Boulter surely felt like everything was going against her.

Rybakina then held in characteristically mechanical fashion but then Boulter rallied, delivering a defiant, much improved display in the third to pull a game back and give the home crowd a glimmer of hope.

Boulter celebrated snatching a point off her in-form opponent in the fourth but Rybakina held once again to regain her three-game advantage.

The pressure was now back on the Brit to hold in the fifth and despite sending an ace down the middle, an overhit forehand provided Rybakina with yet another break.

Boulter rallied in response and seized a surprise 30-0 lead on the Rybakina serve.

That handed her a golden opportunity to break back but once again, the defending champion was simply too ruthless and rapidly turned the tables to propel her one game from victory.

Boulter was serving to stay in the match and after a thunderbolt Rybakina forehand sailed narrowly wide, did take the game to deuce.

But the world No.3 was a woman in a hurry and got the job done to book a last 16 date with Brazilian and 13th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia.

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