WTA Rankings: Katie Boulter the big winner with stunning title run and she could be in for another big jump

Katie Boulter celebrations

Katie Boulter cashed in over the weekend as she not only won her maiden WTA 500 event, but also surged up the WTA Rankings to a new career high of No 27.

With most of the top players opting to skip the WTA events in the week leading up to the Indian Wells Open, there was a big opportunity for those lower down the rankings to make a move.

And Boulter did just that as she won her second career title at the San Diego Open, beating five players ranked in the top 50 en route to her biggest trophy.

The 27-year-old, whose previous title came at the WTA 250 Nottingham Open in 2023, defeated four seeded players – second seed Beatrix Haddad Maia in the second round, seventh seed Donna Vekic in the quarter-final, third seed Emma Navarro in the semi-final and seventh seed Marta Kostyuk in the final – en route to lifting the title.

“This week has been very, very special for so many different reasons,” the British No 1 said during the post-match title celebrations. This one is pretty amazing, I’ve worked very hard for it, I played some incredible tennis all week.

“Today was a complete battle, with myself as well because I was a little bit nervous. But I managed to get over the line and that I’m very proud of.

“A lot of it was about me staying as tough as I possibly could mentally and I managed to keep my cool and actually kind of went within myself and calmed myself down a lot.

“I think that really helped me and then I started to relax and play through shots a little bit more.”

Boulter’s Rankings Rise And What’s To Come

Boulter, who started the 2023 season at No 136 before finishing at NO 56, added 482 points to her total to move to 1,700 points, resulting in a 22-place surge up the rankings to No 27 – 21 places better than her previous high of 47.

There is further good news for Boulter as she doesn’t have a lot of points to defend at the upcoming Sunshine Double.

Last year she failed to make it out of qualifying at the Indian Wells Open and earned 20 points for winning one qualifying match while she didn’t compete at the Miami Open and is defending a handful of points from a corresponding ITF event.

On the flip side, she is more than 200 points behind the 28th-ranked Caroline Garcia although the Frenchwoman does have more than 150 points to defend at the Sunshine Double.

A decent run at either the Indian Wells Open or the Miami Open could see Boulter rise into the top 20 of the WTA Rankings after March.