On Saturday, Katie Boulter will fight for a place in the second week at Wimbledon for the first time in her career. Her source of inspiration? Emma Raducano.
“What she did was amazing,” Boulter said Thursday. “She came out, she surprised everyone, and she played fearless tennis. That’s what’s so impressive. I hope I can go out there and do the same thing. I would love to do what she did. You never know, one day. it could happen. ”
This newfound belief spread across British tennis. Boulter is six years older than Raducanu, and has much more experience at tour level and a string of serious injuries under her belt. But, like the rest of the British group at Wimbledon not named Andy Murray, she has never come close to achieving what Raducanu did in her debut season.
Raducanu, 19, has since been put in the spotlight and has experienced well-documented teething problems that have adapted to the tour. Although she was unable to match her astonishing New York heroic deeds at Wimbledon this week and fell in the second round against Caroline Garcia, her impact was widely felt.
Just as 100,000 Britons started recreational tennis in the three months following Raducanu’s US Open victory, so too was there an increase in results for the elite cohort. The Raducanu hop in British tennis was striking: 10 reached the second round in singles at the All England club this week, the most in 38 years. Boulter is also one of four Britons to reach the third round, an achievement that has only been achieved four times in the last 25 years.
As Boulter whether Liam Broady can support victories of Heather Watson and Cam Norrie, there will be more than two British players at Wimbledon for the first time since 1979 in the second week.
The irony is that neither Raducanu nor Murray, the two most successful active British players, will join them. But both great champions played their part in the rise of this British group, says Boulter’s coach Jeremy Bates. “You have Andy who has won a lot of slams, been there for the last 15 years,” Bates says. “The fame of the men who were around Andy during that period undoubtedly wears off.
“The girls know Emma very well, of course. If you are familiar with someone who is above, you learn what they do daily, you understand more of them, and I think of course there is a subconscious increase in faith.”