Katie Boulter won the Nottingham Open once again, this time by winning two matches on final day, beating Karolina Pliskova on the final.
Ahead of the final day at the WTA 250 tournament in Nottingham, the British player faced a massive task. She was coming into her semi-final match with Emma Raducanu with a one-set deficit, which she had to erase if she wanted to defend her title.
She beat Raducanu in a match that lasted well over three hours, leaving her quite tired for the final against the former world no. 1 player, who, too, had to play her semi-final match on Sunday.
That made the playing field equal, as both players wanted to exert as much as possible from their tired bodies. Early on, the home crowd favorite did that much better, breaking her opponent's serve in the opening game of the match.
She led until 4-2 in the opening set, but that was when things went south for Boulter in that first set. She lost 16 of the following 20 rallies, losing four games in a row to 15, and also the first set 4-6.
Supported by the home crowd, she was determined to fight back, and she did. In the second set, she once again started with a break of her opponent's serve, but this time around, she didn't lose that advantage but she added to it with another break, winning the second set 6-3, and sending the match into the decider.
In the third set, Boulter was the much better player once again. This time, she lost her serve once, but that didn't matter at all, because she broke Pliskova's serve three times, dominating the third set to win the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, and lift her third career WTA Tour-level title, and second in Nottingham.
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