Boulter and Kartal win on record-breaking day for British players

Wimbledon 2025

Venue: All England Club, June 30 – 13 .

At either end of a record-breaking day for British tennis players, Katie Boulter and Sonay Kartal both won impressive matches.

With a 6-2, 3 6-4 victory over Spain’s Paula Badosa, the former British number one took to Centre Court in the evening.

Before the British contingent’s 14th-ranked player, Kartal won the match against 20th seed Jelena Ostapenko to take the field on day one.

Seven Britons in total made it to the second round of Wimbledon in the Open era, making day one the most successful day for British players.

British number one Emma Raducanu defeated compatriot Mimi Xu, Cameron Norrie, Arthur Fery, Oliver Tarvet, and Billy Harris, to take the stage alongside Boulter, 28.

With so many Brits in the draw, Raducanu, 22, said, “It’s incredible.”

“It’s great for the spectators, too, that so many Brits will follow in the draw,” said I. It gets more and more exciting as we win more games.

Boulter, who will next face Argentine lucky loser Solana Sierra, said: “Centre Court Wimbledon, as a Brit, against a top-10 player, doesn’t get that much better.”

One of the benefits of playing tennis is that I can win matches like that and compete against the best players in the world.

“I do think it’s one of the best wins of my career,” she says.

Kartal defeated the former French Open champion 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 to advance to the second round on a hot day at SW19.

Kartal, 23, was one of 10 British women in action at the All England Club, which is the most since 1992.

On a lively court three, she had to come from behind to win the opening set.

However, following a strong tournament at last year’s Wimbledon, where she advanced to the third round, a dominant deciding set ensured her progress to round two for the second time in her career.

After the win, which was her third over a top-20 player this year, she said, “That was by far one of the toughest matches I’ve played.”

“I would say that I struggle against the big guns,” he said. This year, I’ve made a conscious effort to compete in bigger matches and put myself under the most pressure on the court.

After only defeating a top-10 opponent three times, Boulter has now advanced to the second round of Wimbledon six times in a row. However, this was her best opening-round victory against a difficult opponent.

Badosa, a former world number two, has a chance of recovering from injuries that looked unlikely in the first set she dominated, despite the fact that she is a former world number two.

Due to a back injury, Badosa had to withdraw from the Berlin Open earlier this month in the quarter-finals, which may have been a factor since she twice broke her opponent in the opening match.

However, the second set was different because Badosa attacked Boulter on her serve to level things off, securing two breaks in return.

Badosa, 27, was given a break in the opening game, but Boulter immediately resisted after an absorbing third set had the Centre Court crowd captivated.

In the last 18 months, Kartal has seen a remarkable rise in rankings.

She reached the third round of Wimbledon last year as a wildcard ranked 281 out of the world.

She cut a calm and mature figure on her return this year, which came in 230 places above that.

Ostapenko, 28, was comfortably defeated by Kartal in Eastbourne’s opening round last week, but the Briton maintained her composure as she fell 5-2 behind.

Kartal won the next five games with a forehand from Ostapenko, saving set points 5-4 before moving in the set from the set.

Ostapenko was shocked when Kartal sent a sharp forehand round the net post, but the former Wimbledon semi-finalist made it work and won the match comfortably.

Despite this, Ostapenko continued to grow increasingly irritable throughout the match, yelling profanity and berating herself while yelling at her coaches.

She asked the umpire to let the crowd be quiet before shouting at them, raising her arms in exasperation, and the crowd’s fans received glaring looks as well.

The All England Club’s men’s and women’s singles qualifiers for Wimbledon were the highest total since 1984, with 23 Britons registering for the competition.

Harriet Dart, Hannah Klugman, and Mika Stojsavljevic were eliminated from the women’s draw as Raducanu, Boulter, and Kartal advanced.

Dart defeated Dalma Galfi from Hungary in the first set, but she lost 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Leylah Fernandez, the 29th seed, defeated teenager Klugman, 6-3, in her Grand Slam main-draw debut.

The 16-year-old was one of three British players aged 17 and under in the women’s singles draw at the All England Club last month, becoming the first Briton to reach the French Open girls’ final in almost 50 years.