Katie Boulter might have had to wait later than most to play in a first round of the “Sunshine Double” this year, but she starts in Miami against Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
Last year was an inconsistent one for Boulter, who started 2025 inside the world’s top 25, but by the end of the year had slipped to 100th.
After a difficult year, Boulter split with her previously long-term coach Biljana Veselinovic and hired Maria Sharapova’s former coach Michael Joyce, and it seems to have worked.
After only reaching the Australian Open main draw because others withdrew, Boulter has fought her way from 120th to world number 67 by the start of the Miami Open.
This year she has earned more ranking points than the two British women, Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal, who are ranked higher than her and with both of them having withdrawn from Miami, will want to close the gap.
The impressive start to the year, which included winning her fourth career title at the Ostrava Open and reaching the Mexico Open quarter-finals, took a step back in Indian Wells where she came into qualifying seeded first but then lost to Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva in three sets.
