Illness ends Katie Boulter’s Birmingham bid

Katie Boulter’s winning run ended prematurely in Birmingham with the British number one retiring due to illness after the first set of her opening match against Anhelina Kalinina.

Boulter successfully retained his Rothesay Open title in Nottingham on Sunday but admitted after struggling through two matches in one day due to poor weather that he was not feeling well.

However, she headed to Edgbaston Priory but the 27-year-old battled from the start against Ukraine’s Kalinina and called on her trainer and doctor to trail 5-2.

Boulter had his temperature and blood pressure taken and some paracetamol before continuing but, after losing the set 6-3, shook his head and said.

“I’m fine,” said a hoarse Boulter, who has been battling a cold for the past week.

“Obviously, 10 long days. I wanted to come up here anyway, I wanted to try, but I’m not ready yet. I was pretty sick during Nottingham, but I tried to stay on the tour as long as I could, as bad as I was.

“From the third match I struggled a lot. But I tried to push through it and get through the week. It’s probably a combination of everything.”

Chief among Boulter’s motivations was the chance to secure a seed at Wimbledon, and she now risks crashing out of the top 32 at the crucial moment.

“It’s not everything, but it was a chance for me to try and get seeded there,” said Boulter, who still plans to play Eastbourne next week.

“At the end of the day, I’m going to play the role of the person I’m drawing and focus on that. I’m working hard to raise my ranking as much as possible, but if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.”

The only British woman to reach the second round was Harriet Dart.

A quarter-finalist here last year, she started her campaign in confidence with a 6-3 6-3 win against Japanese qualifier Moyuka Uchijima, but there was a heartbreaking defeat to Heather Watson.

The 32-year-old, who also needed medical treatment, led Czech eighth seed Marie Bouzkova 5-2 in the deciding set, only to lose five straight games and fall to a 3-6 6-4 7-5 defeat after almost three hours. .

Former world number one Caroline Wozniacki played her first tour-level match on grass in 2019 but quickly bowed out, losing 6-4, 6-1 to Belgium’s Elise Mertens.

It was a rematch of the 2018 Australian Open semi-final where Wozniacki won her only Grand Slam title before retiring two years later and having two children.

The Dane returned to the sport last summer and hopes to receive a wild card at Wimbledon on Wednesday.

Britain’s Amelia Rajecki, 22, qualified for her first WTA Tour event and made a strong start against Diana Shnaider before the Russian fought back to win 7-5, 6-3.

Dart will next face second seed Barbora Krejcikova, who won 6-1 7-6 (5) over Australia’s Daria Saville.

Meanwhile, at the Ecotrans Ladies Open in Berlin, Naomi Osaka was beaten 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 by Australian Open runner-up Zheng Qinwen.