Birmingham Classic: Katie Boulter beats Caroline Garcia to reach quarter-finals

2 years ago 32

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Britain's Katie Boulter backed up the biggest win of her career by beating Caroline Garcia to reach the Birmingham Classic quarter-finals.

The day after defeating Alison Riske for her first win over a top-40 player, Boulter triumphed 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 over French former world number four Garcia.

Garcia double-faulted to lose the first set and was still unhappy early in the second, with Boulter taking advantage.

"I'm absolutely ecstatic right now," Boulter, 25, said.

She will next face either compatriot Harriet Dart or former world number one Simona Halep, who are playing later on Wednesday.

Boulter has struggled with illness and injury over the past three years and is just returning from a leg injury she sustained in March.

"I've worked so hard the past few weeks with my injury," she said in her on-court interview.

"It kind of makes it feel worthwhile - and all the tough moments that I went through, and pushing through, really got me through today. I'm really happy to be in the quarter-finals and am looking forward to another good match."

A close first set was settled by a tie-break, and more specifically the double fault that Garcia never seemed to recover from.

The French world number 74 was frustrated that the umpire had overruled the line judge by calling her first serve out on that final point and she spent the changeover at the end of the set complaining and taking it out on her racquet and water bottle.

She was still shaking her head at the start of the second set and Boulter made the most of her opponent's distraction to break early and go 3-0 up.

The British world number 141 fended off a break point in the fifth game of the second set before immediately breaking and then serving out the match to love.

Boulter is coming into good form on grass with the start of Wimbledon less than a fortnight away.

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