British player Katie Boulter needed three sets to best Ukranian Marta Kostyuk in the finals of the San Diego Open at the Barnes Tennis Center on Sunday, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2. The victory marked Boulter’s first-ever 500-level championship, and only her second career title.
The final pitted 34-ranked Kostyuk against 49-ranked Boulter. This matchup was the first Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 500-level final with players ranked outside the top 30 since 2021.
With the win, Boulter’s world ranking is now her all-time high of 27.
Boulter beat four top-40 players to get the final, including Beatriz Haddad Maia (#13), Emma Navarro (#26), Donna Vekic (#28), and Lesia Tsurenko (#36).
Kostyuk’s run included a 95-minute semi-final defeat of world number five American Jessica Pegula, 7-6, 6-1. Pegula had been leading 5-1 in the first set before Kostyuk took over the match. Kostyuk was hoping to become the second Ukranian to win a WTA title, after Elina Svitolina.
The hard-striking players battled in the first set, breaking each other’s serves five times, of which Kostyuk won three. The breaks contributed to Kostyuk’s 7-5 set win.
The momentum began to shift at the end of the first set toward Boulter, and continued into the second and third sets.
Although Boulter double faulted 13 times in the match, she increased the percentage of first service points won from 57% in set 1 to a staggering 82% in sets 2 and 3 combined.
Boulter also improved her success rate in winning points when Kostyuk’s first serves landed. While she only won 21% of these points in set one, she increased to 55% in sets 2 and 3. This improvement played a key role in her ability to break Kostyuk’s serve five times in the final two sets.
In the trophy ceremony, Kostyuk thanked her family in Ukraine, recognizing the current and future challenges in her country. “There is nobody who has sacrificed more for my career than them (my family). I want to dedicate this small trophy to them and I want them to see me win as much as possible. This one goes to them.”
Boulter recognized her team and the tournament in her comments. “A massive thanks to my team. You mean the world to me. Thank you,” she said. “I love playing here. Thanks so much.”
Prize Money
Boulter earned $142,000 for winning it all, while Kotsyuk received $87,655. This tournament offered $922,573 in prize money, an 18% increase from 2023. The WTA is working to achieve parity with men’s Association of Tennis Professional (ATP) tournaments, a goal that the WTA and others set to achieve by 2027 or 2033, depending on the type of tournament.
As a point of comparison, the ATP hosted a 500-level tournament in Acapulco this week. Alex de Minaur, Boulter’s boyfriend of two years, won the tournament on Saturday evening and flew in early Sunday morning to watch Boulter compete.
de Minaur received $412,555 for his win. The men’s tournament prize money was $2,206,080.
The WTA has its work cut out to realize its goal.
Fans may know that the four annual Grand Slam tennis tournaments have offered equal prize money since 2007. The U.S. Open led the way, offering equal prize money beginning in 1973 (thank you, Billie Jean King and eight other women who formed what is known today as the WTA).
What is lesser known is that payouts for women at most other tournaments are about half as much as for the same level men’s tournaments (www.perfect-tennis.com/prize-money). One exception is the upcoming 1000-level tournament in Indian Wells that began offering equal prize money in 2012.
Notable
Both Kostyuk and Boulter have coaches who are women, a relative rarity even on the women’s side of the sport. Boulter’s coach is Biljana Veselinovic and Kostyuk’s is Sandra Zaniewska.
Although now only 21 years old, Kostyuk broke into the top 100 in 2020, ending that year at 98, while Boulter’s rise has been more recent. The 27-year old Boulter ended 2022 at 124 and 2023 at 58.
After a rain delay of 2.5 hours for the doubles final, the three-seed American Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Australian Ellen Perez easily defeated number-one seed Americans Jessica Pegula and Desirae Krawczyk, 6-1, 6-2.
