Katie Boulter hits back strongly to win Ostrava Open final

Katie Boulter won her first WTA Tour title since 2024 by fighting back to beat Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch 5-7 6-2 6-1 in the Ostrava Open final.

Boulter, who had slipped down to 120 in the rankings, will climb back into the top 100 after sealing the fourth WTA title of her career.

The 29-year-old Briton lost four straight games at the end of the opening set and the start of the second, but she reeled off 12 of the next 15 games to seal her first title since her second Nottingham Open triumph in 2024.

Boulter, due to marry Australia’s world number six Alex de Minaur this year, said: “It feels incredible. I’ve waited a long time for this one. I’ve worked extremely hard after a really tough year and it feels like I got the reward I deserved after putting so much work in.

“I’m absolutely thrilled. I just don’t want to stop working. I’ve got a big year ahead of me. It’s my wedding year and that’s going to be the best year of my life, no matter what happens.”

Boulter teamed up with Maria Sharapova’s former coach, American Michael Joyce, at the turn of the year and lost only two sets during the entire tournament in the Czech Republic.

She will climb to 84 in the rankings after wrapping up her victory in exactly two hours and adds her latest tournament win to previous successes in Nottingham (twice) and San Diego.

Boulter had found tour-level wins hard to come by since Wimbledon last summer and tore an abductor in her final event of last year in Hong Kong.

Leading 3-2 in the second set against Korpatsch, Boulter won the next five games, taking the second set 6-2 and opening up a 2-0 lead in the decider.

Korpatsch held serve to trail 2-1, but Boulter was in full control, winning the next four and breaking her opponent again at 5-1 up to seal victory on her second championship point.

Emma Raducanu missed the chance to win her first title since her US Open triumph in 2021 after losing in straight sets to home favourite Sorana Cirstea in the Transylvania Open final.

Top seed Raducanu appeared to be feeling the effects of her marathon semi-final win against Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova on Friday, losing out to Cirstea 6-0 6-2 in little over an hour in Cluj.

Romanian Cirstea, 35 and in her final year on the Tour, sealed the fourth WTA title of her 20-year career.

Raducanu, whose father is Romanian, was pushed to the limit in her last-four clash against Oliynykova 24 hours earlier and had no answers against Cirstea’s big hitting.

She said: “It was great to be in a final again. Sorana played great all week. She’s in form for sure and I’m really happy she was able to win this title at home. It meant a lot to her.

“I had a great week myself. I really enjoyed playing here. The crowd really made me feel like I was at home. It was a really special week for me. Today I didn’t feel great, but it’s not going to take away from my week.”

The British number one came under early pressure, eventually losing her opening service game having saved five break points, and she went on to lose the opening set without winning a game in just 30 minutes.

After losing a fourth successive service game to fall 2-0 down in the second set, Raducanu broke Cirstea to love to win her first game but then needed a medical time out.

She recovered to then hold her serve for the first time to level it up at 2-2, but could not maintain her momentum as Cirstea regrouped to take the next three games and lead 5-2.

Raducanu appeared to have nothing left in the tank as she served to stay in the match and in the next game she lost her serve for a sixth time as Cirstea took the title.

At the Abu Dhabi Open, Czech qualifier Sara Bejlek sealed a surprise first WTA Tour win by beating Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 (5) 6-1 in the final. The 20-year-old will climb from 101 in the rankings into the top 50 after the best week of her career.15