{"id":265841,"date":"2026-06-13T21:14:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T21:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/265841\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T21:14:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T21:14:00","slug":"boulter-crashes-out-in-semi-finals-after-queens-club-heroics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/265841\/","title":{"rendered":"Boulter crashes out in semi-finals after Queen\u2019s Club heroics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The scene of Katie Boulter\u2019s<\/a> best career win became one of her quickest losses of the year 18 hours later, with Donna Veki&cacute; claiming a 6-1, 6-3 victory in an hour and six minutes.<\/p>\n

Veki&cacute; is through to the Queen\u2019s Club final after only being in the main draw as a lucky loser, having lost in the final round of qualifying to Anna Blinkova.<\/p>\n

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Since the world No 76 was handed that second chance she has lost only one set en route to Sunday\u2019s final, to Karol\u00edna Pl\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1 in the quarter-final.<\/p>\n

\"Donna<\/p>\n

Donna Vekic lost in the final round of qualifying at Queen\u2019s but the lucky loser only dropped one set in the main draw en route to the final – Adam Davy\/PA<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt underprepared coming into the tournament,\u201d Boulter said after the defeat. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel like I\u2019d got enough reps in on the court. I think I\u2019ve done a tremendous job, considering, to play two matches yesterday, and also just get up and go again today. Obviously, really quick turnaround for me. Physically, it clearly wasn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boulter had claimed the biggest win of her career in the quarter-finals<\/a>, knocking out Elena Rybakina, the world No 2, in three sets.<\/p>\n

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The rarity of that feat was such that you have to go back nine years to the last time a British woman beat an opponent of such standing, when Johanna Konta eliminated Simona Halep at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Boulter looked a shadow of the same player and was up against it after losing the first set 6-1 to Veki&cacute; in just 34 minutes.<\/p>\n

Whereas Boulter had been able to contest everything Rybakina had to offer, she was sent racing across the court by Veki&cacute;, who started strongly \u2013 the Briton making 12 unforced errors in the opening set as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m currently ranked 70 in the world. I am not supposed to make the semi-finals of this tournament,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you look at the lineup, we had an incredible lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On her compatriot Emma Raducanu<\/a>, she added: \u201cI think, you know, someone like Emma, she\u2019s an incredible player. We all know that. You know, I personally expect her to be at the back end of these tournaments. I have high regard for her. I think she should be there, and I think she\u2019s a great grass-court player.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Boulter tried to get back into the match in the second set, she saved two break points in her second service game, but was unable to save a third.<\/p>\n

After that, Veki&cacute; held serve with ease to hold on to her advantage, then carving out another opportunity with two match points on Boulter\u2019s serve, taking the second one.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into a match like today after yesterday, I know it\u2019s a really unique situation where you\u2019re playing two matches in one day, and I have been sick the week before,\u201d Boulter said.<\/p>\n

\"Katie<\/p>\n

Boulter says she wants to improve on backing up wins following her run to the semi-finals at Queen\u2019s – Andrew Couldridge\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something that\u2019s going to repeatedly happen, but for me, I really want to improve in that area. I want to improve in backing up my wins. I need to start doing that.<\/p>\n

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\u201cObviously yesterday was a great win for me, a top-10 player, top-five player, but I need to be able to do that repeatedly to be able to do that at the big tournaments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Try full access to The Telegraph free today. Unlock their award-winning website and essential news app, plus useful tools and expert guides for your money, health and holidays.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The scene of Katie Boulter\u2019s best career win became one of her quickest losses of the year 18…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[36476,100829,9,24,63,102938,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-265841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-katie-boulter","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-quarter-finals","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}