Katie Boulter was supported like an adopted Aussie as she went down swinging in a 6-0 7-5 defeat to the in-form 10th seed Belinda Bencic at the Australian Open.
Boulter has handed a difficult opening match against Bencic, who returned to the world’s top-10 ahead of the Australian Open after winning five matches in a row to start the season, including victories over Iga Swiatek and Jasmine Paolini.
Boulter is engaged to Alex de Minaur, the men’s No 6 and top home hope at the Australian Open, who was watching court-side at the Margaret Court Arena, and the former British No 1 was cheered on by chants of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” from the crowd.
Boulter had set her expectations extremely low after a difficult 2025, where her ranking plummeted to outside the world’s top 100, and she required late withdrawals to make it into the main draw and avoid the qualifying rounds.
The 29-year-old also changed coaches ahead of the new season, hiring Maria Sharapova’s former coach Michael Joyce for the Australian Open, and said she was under no pressure ahead of her first-round match against the in-form Bencic.
“I’m just going to go out and swing,” Boulter said. “I really don’t think there’s any pressure. I don’t think there’s anyone in this room that thinks I’m going to win that match.”
Boulter’s assessment appeared to be accurate when she lost a bagel set in just 26 minutes, but the second set was a far more competitive contest after the British player held serve for the first time in the opening game.
After dropping serve, Boulter immediately bounced back to break Bencic for the first time and level the match at 4-4. But the former Olympic champion Bencic broke Boulter for the second time to lead 6-5, before serving out a 6-0 7-5 win.
