THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 2, 2025

Katie Boulter

Press Conference

S. SIERRA/K. Boulter

6-7, 6-2, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Katie, tough day out there. Give us your thoughts.

KATIE BOULTER: Yeah, not my best day. I think I have to sometimes just credit the opponent here. I think I've got a lot of things to go back and work on.

I really felt like she played a great match. I felt like she committed to the ball. It was coming through very fast. I felt like I couldn't quite control it.

So credit to her. She swung and she won the match. Yeah, I'm happy for her. But I have to go back to the drawing board for myself.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You're below the level that we've come to expect from you. What do you put that down to? How difficult was it emotionally in the last moments of that match?

KATIE BOULTER: I mean, of course it hurts. It's a really tough pill to swallow. It always is here. Unfortunately it's just the way that it is.

Sometimes I just have to accept that my moment might not come at some point. I'm just going to keep working hard and keep trying my hardest. Ultimately that's all I can do and keep putting myself out there and keep improving every single year.

Look, I understand that people have good expectations, and I have high expectations of myself as well. I sometimes have to allow the opponent to play well, as well. I think you can look at a piece of paper and be like, Oh, this is a terrible loss. Ultimately, she played better than me on the day. That's how it is.

I don't necessarily feel like I completely lost the match. I think last year I probably sat here and said that I lost the match personally. This year I'm not going to sit here and say that. I think she played a good match.

Q. You obviously didn't serve as well as you would like to. A lot of double-faults. When that happens, how hard is it to stop that feeling through the rest of the your game, losing the belief? Does it wear on you as the match goes on?

KATIE BOULTER: I felt like, in the match, I think at the start I did really well to come back from that. I think I kind of squeaked the first set. I could feel the pressure she was putting on me, on the service games.

Obviously I'm quite used to, when I am serving well, getting a lot of free points. It's kind of me then imposing myself on her. I felt like, because I wasn't able to with a lot of first serves or I wasn't really hurting her the way that I wanted to, I think naturally I kind of then went within myself. That allowed her to get on top even more.

Yeah, if there's one takeaway, I think that's probably the part that I struggled with. I think I would have quite liked to have been more out there with my personality than within myself at the very end of the match.

At the same time, I was also running out of ideas. I was just trying to change something and do something different. Whether it was taking pace off my first serve to put it in or to use more slice or whatever. Honestly, she hit the ball great. I tried a lot of different things. She was hitting it very fast at me. That's where maybe I can talk to my team and go back and work on ball three. I'm not entirely sure.

It's not often that I feel like that. I didn't feel like that against Paula. I felt like I was the one dictating and going through the shots. Even when she was hitting full power, and I would say she's someone who has one of the most powerful shots on tour, I didn't feel the same. I think hers was a lot flatter and coming through quicker.

So, yeah, sometimes you have to credit the opponent. She played great. I've got things to work on.

Q. Obviously against Paula you were potentially the underdog against a seeded player. Did you feel added pressure going into today as the one almost expected to go through?

KATIE BOULTER: No and yes. I think naturally you want to back up a performance like I did the first day. There were so many positives from it, so I wanted to take them and use them in today.

Also, it's not my first rodeo. I'm very well aware that these players who are underneath are coming in, and they're going to play with no pressure no matter what. As you said, I was that person for Paula. She was that person for me today. You just got to keep trying to fight them off no matter what the situation and hope that at some point you get your chance.

I did in the first set, but yeah, I obviously felt some pressure. I don't think it's the reason why I lost the match.

Q. How do you reflect on your grass court swing as a whole? What are the things you need to work on?

KATIE BOULTER: Yeah, I think my grass court experience this year, it was interesting. It was good. It's always great to be on the grass. I love being here. I love these places. I feel like my game suits these courts. I think I've got a lot of potential on these courts.

At the moment, it's quite frustrating because I feel like I'm not bringing that out of myself yet. I feel like I'm kind of teetering on the edge and getting closer every single year. Maybe not in actual results, but the level of my tennis is increasing.

I do feel like the momentum that I had at the start of the year is slowly finally coming back to me. I think having a chunk out at the start of the year where it kind of stopped me from playing some of the tennis that I wanted to be playing, was quite hard mentally. I think dealing with that over the clay season, as well, just trying to bring my level back up again physically, bring myself back to where I want to be.

I think I did start to kind of find that again a bit more.

In terms of things that I need to work on, I'll go back to my team. I think there's probably a list. There's always a list. There's a lot of things that are a work in progress. Sometimes I have to be patient with myself. I'm not a patient person. I want results. I want to do better at Wimbledon. I think that's the hard part about all of this, is that I want to do better in weeks like this.

Yeah, I mean, my level was shown in the first round. Now I have to continue that and make that better and more consistent.

Q. A few of the female players have spoken about safety concerns this year. You previously spoke about trolling. Has your experience with trolling improved at all? Have you felt safe this year?

KATIE BOULTER: I don't really know what they've said. I haven't seen much of that. I mean, from my perspective, I feel safe. I haven't even remotely thought about going on my social media because I'm sure there will be a fair few people that have got a few nice things to say for me.

Yeah, for me, myself, I feel safe here. I haven't had any issues, no.