Boulter stuns top seed Rybakina to reach Queen’s Club semi-finals

London, June 13 (IANS) British wildcard Katie Boulter produced the biggest upset of the Queen’s Club Championships on Friday, defeating top seed Elena Rybakina 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 to book her place in the semi-finals after a demanding day that also included a second-round victory over Jaqueline Cristian.

The world No. 73 secured her maiden win over Rybakina, having lost to the Kazakh in straight sets in their previous meetings at the 2023 Wimbledon and 2025 Indian Wells, and sending Boulter into her second semi-final of the 2026 season following her title win in Ostrava.

“I think my goal today was just to play better than I did the last time at Wimbledon,” Boulter stated. “I felt like I really let the occasion get to me that time and I wanted to prove to myself and to others that I’m a better tennis player than that.”

“That loss was painful to take, it really stayed with me, and I wanted to come out today and really swing freely, just really go for it because I held back that time.”

Boulter’s success over the two-time grand slam champion followed an exhausting day. Due to rain on Thursday, she had to complete her second-round match on Friday morning, beating Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian 6-3 6-1, and then later beat the world No.2 in three sets.

Croatia’s Donna Vekic will be Boulter’s opponent in Saturday’s semi-final, having herself played two matches on Friday. Vekic finished a rain-delayed second round match against Marie Bouzkova 7-6 (9) 6-3 on Friday, before beating former world No.1 Karolina Pliskova 6-4 4-6 6-3 in their quarter-final encounter on Friday.

Vekic’s win over Pliskova was her third consecutive victory over the veteran, extending her head to head to 3-0 after 12 matches against the Czech.

The win was particularly sweet for Vekic, as it has put her into the last four of the tournament in her second bite of cherry, having entered the main draw as a lucky loser after Marta Kostyuk withdrew through injury. The Croatian is through to her second WTA semi-final of 2026, bidding for her first WTA tour final since Bad Homburg in 2024.

This will be the first meeting between the two in two years; the only previous encounter was in the quarter-finals of the 2024 San Diego Open, where Boulter won 6-4 6-3 before winning the first WTA 500 event of her career.

In the other half of the draw, American teenager Iva Jovic, reached her fourth semi-final of 2026 with an impressive three-set win over fellow countrywoman and 2025 Queen’s runner-up Amanda Anisimova. This result marks Jovic’s first win against a top-five opponent (in five matches) and came in her first encounter against Anisimova.

Jovic, who has also made semi-finals in Auckland, Hobart and Charleston this year, will face either Britain’s Emma Raducanu or Uzbek lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova. Their quarter-final was scheduled to be played on Friday night but was postponed to Saturday due to the delays that occurred during Friday’s play.

Earlier on Friday, Raducanu beat Sorana Cirstea in straight sets to book her place in the last eight, and it was lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova who denied an all-British quarter-final with a hard fought 5-7 6-1 7-5 win over wild card Harriet Dart in a contest lasting almost three hours.

Jovic holds a 2-0 record against Rakhimova, including a victory in Dubai earlier this season, while she has never faced Raducanu.

–IANS

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