Katie Boulter overcame a late collapse to reach the last 16 of the Hong Kong Open, beating Viktorija Golubic 6-2 7-6 (7-2) despite being broken while serving for the match at 5-2 up. The British number one called it a “lesson learned.”
The turning point came during that service game, when Boulter complained to the umpire after a point was not replayed because of an audible noise from outside that caused a distraction. An unsettled Boulter then lost her next service game as well. The world number 49 Golubic then won the tie-break to close out the match.
“It was interesting,” said Boulter, who was the losing finalist at the Hong Kong Open in 2024.
“I was playing some really good tennis. I feel like I should have closed it out but a couple of things happened.
“There was a little bit of interesting judgement which got under my skin a little bit and, usually, I’m pretty good at batting it off but I was a little tired.
“It’s end of season and it seemed to get to me but lesson learned, I managed to get over the line.”
Boulter, who beat world number 89 Golubic in dominant fashion when reaching the semi-finals at the Japan Open last month, will play American Claire Liu in the next round.