Harmony Tan marches on after exposing Katie Boulter’s weaknesses

After the joy of staring down a big name on the biggest stage and having the nerve to summon the best of herself when the moment required, Katie Boulter arrived for a new day on No 2 Court with the most nerve-racking situation a tennis player can navigate: an opportunity.

Never before had either Boulter or Harmony Tan reached the third round of a grand slam and only three ranking spots separated them, No 118 and No 115. They had usurped Karolina Pliskova and Serena Williams in the booming surrounds of Centre Court, yet here they stood in a match that would not have looked out of place at a low-level ITF event, but which was in the fourth round of a grand slam with £190,000 on the line.

In the end, Boulter never had a chance. Her breakout Wimbledon came to an end in brutal fashion as Tan expertly blunted her weapons and exposed her weaknesses, and with a tremendous performance the Frenchwoman continued her dream tournament by eviscerating Boulter 6-1, 6-1 to reach the second week of a grand slam tournament for the first time.

The All England Club’s decision not to put this encounter on one of the top two courts had sparked criticism from some quarters but, in typical form for these championships, the match began with swaths of empty seats on the tournament’s third biggest court.

Fortune did not shine on Boulter early on and her opening service game set the tone. First she broke a string on a routine forehand, then on the following point Tan’s volley clipped the net and dribbled over as a winner. On break point, Boulter left a lob that she thought was flying out, but it landed well inside the baseline. She struggled to find a rhythm, spraying backhands, making rushed decisions.

But the defining point of the match was how her opponent took her level from the opening round against Williams and has only continued to grow. From the very beginning, Tan was sublime and she played at a consistently high level throughout. She brandished all of the variety that had maddened Williams, making Boulter uncomfortable by forcing her to move, her backhand slice skidded low and she swept to the net with ease. As she refused to allow Boulter two of the same type of shots, she was entirely the reason for her opponent’s lack of rhythm.

Katie Boulter is unable to reach a volley during her defeat by Harmony Tan
Katie Boulter is unable to reach a volley during her defeat by Harmony Tan. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Observer

But unlike against Williams, when she sliced every other forehand, Tan imposed herself far more. She prodded Boulter with her forehand, exposing her movement and threading winners. She flashed passing shots by Boulter with ease. Tan even served well, normally an obvious weakness, ending the set with three aces in the game. The constant pressure, point after point, forced Boulter to take more risks and commit more errors. Tan finished with 16 winners and just five unforced errors, a near flawless performance.

Thursday’s win over Pliskova had been a reflection of Boulter’s talents, the weapons at her disposal, but this was a reminder, beyond her injury history, of her limitations. Charged with creating pace on the ball herself, unlike the first-strike tennis against Pliskova, and problem-solving against a tricky opponent competing at an extremely high level, Boulter looked out of ideas before the first set was out.

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As Boulter’s attempts to energise herself and tap into the No 2 Court crowd fell flat, Tan took the decisive break for 6-1, 4-1 spectacularly: she absorbed Boulter’s first strike, she chased down a drop shot and then a lob, then she struck a firm tweener and ended the point by slotting a backhand past a helpless Boulter at the net. Her hopes crushed, Boulter double-faulted on match point to end a miserable day on court.

source: theguardian.com