Katie Boulter dedicated her upset of No. 6 seed Karolina Pliskova in the second round at Wimbledon to her late grandmother, who died two days before the match.
Boulter advances to the third round of a major for the first time with the 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 win.
“I’ve got absolutely no words right now, I’m literally shaking. The crowd was unbelievable, thank you so much for getting me through that,” said Boulter, who then revealed that her grandmother died two days earlier.
“I’d just like to dedicate that to her today,” she said. “It’s a dream come true for me. I’ve got hopefully more matches to play.”
"My gran passed away two days ago. I'd just like to dedicate that to her"
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 30, 2022
A touching moment on Centre Court for @katiecboulter and her family 💚💜#Wimbledon | #CentreCourt100 pic.twitter.com/48rzrM3OPR
The English player was up 2-0 in the first set before losing six of seven to drop the set. She rallied, winning the next two sets to wrap up the nearly two-hour match. She’s the second Brit to make it to the third round on the women’s side, with Heather Watson taking down Wang Qiang in straight sets Wednesday.
Boulter’s victory comes nine days after she knocked Pliskova out of Eastbourne in the second round.
Boulter next will face Harmony Tan, who upended Serena Williams in a marathon match Tuesday and backed up that win in the second round Thursday with a 6-3, 6-4 win over No. 32 seed Sara Sorribes Tormo.