Katie Boulter back in top 100 after title success in Ostrava

British tennis celebrated a WTA title on Saturday – but not the one most people were talking about.

All through the past week, Katie Boulter’s run in Ostrava had been overshadowed by Emma Raducanu’s parallel progress in Cluj-Napoca.

But it was Raducanu who faltered and Boulter who surged across the line as she overpowered Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch in three sets, thus sealing her return to the world’s top 100 after a miserable 2025 campaign.

“Everyone close to me knows how hard this last year has been for me,” said Boulter in her victory speech. “To get today, it makes it all worth it.”

Katie Boulter wins the Ostrava Open to claim her fourth WTA Tour title 🚨 🏆 pic.twitter.com/qPeGyerhZE

— Sky Sports Tennis (@SkySportsTennis) February 7, 2026

This was a match of contrasts between Boulter’s big but sometimes unreliable game and the scampering retrieval skills of the underpowered Korpatsch – a player who hits winners only slightly more often than she has birthdays.

Boulter held all the cards throughout, and wasted a clear opportunity to win the first set when she served for it at 5-4. “The whole week I was just swinging and going for it and trusting my game,” she said, “but the moment you get into the final you start questioning yourself. It showed when she stole the first set away from me.”

Never mind. Boulter still had the match on her racket, as the pros say, and she began cranking up her aggression. Korpatsch admitted at the presentation that “I feel like I played so bad today but honestly I think you just didn’t let me play better”.

Korpatsch also told a heartwarming story about feeling “destroyed” in the locker-room a couple of seasons ago after a poor series of results, only for Boulter to give her a motivational pep-talk. “You said something to me very kind, which honestly helped me a lot.”

Returning to Boulter, this was a significant moment for a woman who came in to Ostrava with only four match wins at tour level since Wimbledon. It is also a vindication of her decision to change coaches, moving on from Biljana Veselinovic to the experienced Michael Joyce, who has previously worked with Maria Sharapova, Jessica Pegula and Johanna Konta among others.

Boulter will go away ranked at No 84, a position which will earn her direct entry into WTA 1000 events such as Miami and Indian Wells. Meanwhile, her four WTA titles equals the record set by Heather Watson, exceeding Konta’s three. You have to go back to the prolific Virginia Wade, who retired just over four decades ago, to find a British woman with more trophies to her name.

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