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Katie Boulter said she "never fully got into the match" against Elena Rybakina but also highlighted that the Kazakh was "the much better player" in their Wimbledon match. On Saturday, world No 89 Boulter met defending Wimbledon champion Rybakina on the Centre Court in the third round.
Unfortunately for Boulter and British fans, the top-ranked British female tennis player didn't stand much of a chance against Rybakina as the Kazakh crushed the home favorite 6-1 6-1. "I wouldn't say I really felt like I got into the match fully.
She's clearly the defending champion for a reason, and I learnt a lot. There's a handful of players who are at the top of game who you have to adjust and you have to get yourself ready for that. I have done before. I feel like I have played serves like that, but obviously today it was too much for me.
I'm going to continue to work on myself and my return, but it's definitely been improving a lot over the past few months without a doubt. Today was a small blip in the returning game. She was relentless at the end of the day.
She was the much better player," Boulter said.
Boulter on the Rybakina match: We started quite late
Rybakina and Boulter were scheduled to be the final match on the Centre Court on Saturday's schedule. But the start of their match was delayed for a couple of hours as the two matches that were played earlier took longer than expected to finish.
In the end, Boulter and Rybakina entered the court at around 9 pm local time. For Boulter, playing under the lights on a Centre Court was a completely new experience. “It was quite late. Obviously it was my first match playing under lights.
It was a little bit different and it took time for me to adjust on serve especially. I don’t think I quite found it. I will always reflect back on something positive. The crowd are incredible. I wanted to give them a bit more today, but unfortunately I couldn’t do that. But I appreciated them every single second I was out there," Boulter said.