sport news MIKE DICKSON: Katie Boulter eyes another Leicester miracle as she aims to ... trends now
More unlikely things have happened than Katie Boulter making a run deep into the heart of this year's Wimbledon.
Her hometown football club, Leicester, winning the Premier League in 2016 for instance. Or perhaps a teenager from Kent winning the US Open within months of doing her A-levels.
Maybe something is in the air for the 25 year-old British number four, as already this has been no ordinary week.
Katie Boulter is through to the third round at Wimbledon after she overcame Karolina Pliskova
Boutler, from Leicester, is drawing inspiration from Leicester's incredible 2016 league success
On Tuesday night, after her first round victory, she was told that her grandmother – among the inspirations for her tennis career – had passed away.
On Thursday afternoon she defeated last year's beaten finalist and the number six seed, Karolina Pliskova, 3-6 7-6 6-4 to make the third round. Her next opponent will be Harmony Tan of France, the player who knocked out Serena Williams.
Forty minutes after Thursday's victory Boulter ventured out onto the players' roof lawn for an emotional reunion with her newly-widowed grandfather Brian, sneaking up from behind to give him a hug.
Also there was her mother Sue, a stalwart of Leicestershire tennis who happens also to be a member of the All England Club.
As Boulter said later: 'I was lucky because my grandpa managed to come down from Leicester, and so we could keep him company and keep supporting him at the same time.'
While this week's sad personal news is of a different dimension, she is no stranger to pursuing her career amid setbacks, particularly when it comes to her catalogue of varied injuries.
Overcoming No 6 seed Pliskova represents an impressive achievement for Boulter
Boulter's coach Jeremy Bates isn't surprised she performed well in difficult circumstances
To her longtime coach, former GB men's number one Jeremy Bates, it was no surprise that she still produced her best tennis under the most difficult of circumstances.
'She has worked incredibly hard and had an awful lot of adversity over a period of years,' he told Sportsmail.
'Yesterday was more of a thoughtful day for her after the news late but she would obviously have wished to do what her grandparents wanted. She has already proved she has mental strength through the tough times.
'She got to her highest ranking in early 2019 and missed seven months with a back issue and then Covid came. She performs well on a big court, look at her record in the Billie Jean King Cup for GB. To get over the line was massive after what happened last year.'
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