Tennis fans hoping Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter could both make a deep run at the French Open were left sorely disappointed on Tuesday as the British women’s star crashed out in the first round. De Minaur completely outclassed American teen Alex Michelsen in a 6-1 6-0 6-2 thrashing, before heading over to watch his girlfriend take on Paula Badosa.
Boulter made a promising start against her Spanish opponent but went down 6-4 5-7 4-6 as all six British players in the main draw lost in the first round. De Minaur was spotted cheering on his girlfriend in the crowd, but the support couldn’t spur her to victory.
It marked just the fourth time this century – after 2007, 2013 and 2020 – that no British player has progressed to the second round at Roland Garros. “I’m sitting here right now with a little bit of a heavy heart because it was an absolute battle,” Boulter said afterwards. “I gave it everything and she played better than me, it’s that simple.
“I can’t speak for the others. I’ve worked so hard to be in this position and I’ve just lost out in the finest of margins. I’ve done the very best that I can.”
Speaking after his win over Michelsen, de Minaur said about Boulter: “Safe to say that we don’t take it too hard if either of us don’t watch each other play because we obviously know that we’re getting ready, we’ve got to recover, got to do stuff to focus on yourself.” The Aussie said he was looking forward to seeing how far his girlfriend could go, but Boulter will now turn her attention to supporting de Minaur.
