Boulter

British number one Katie Boulter endured a “bad day at the office” as she won just one game in a 58-minute demolition by Karolina Muchova in the US Open second round.

The match, originally scheduled to be played on one of the outer courts, was moved to the 14,000-capacity Louis Armstrong Stadium after heavy rain in New York.

But fans who had counted themselves lucky to have gained a third match on their day session ticket may have been left feeling short-changed, as Boulter fell to a swift 6-1 6-0 defeat by the Czech seventh seed.

“Ultimately, it was a bad day at the office – times two,” said Boulter.

“I struggled with the conditions. I struggled with the roof, the noise, I let things distract me.

“I let it get to me. I’m not usually aware of everything going on. It made me feel a little bit uncomfortable. I have to deal with it better.”

Fellow Briton Jacob Fearnley also failed to reach the third round as he suffered a 6-3 6-3 3-6 6-3 loss to Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

But Francesca Jones had better fortune as she returned to win her first-round match against Poland’s Magda Linette after it was interrupted by rain on Tuesday.

Boulter’s serve let her down as she hit eight double faults and no aces, while she won just 33% of points behind her first serve.

Unable to fend off any of the seven break points she faced, the 30-year-old was not helped by an unforced error count of 22 compared to just four winners.

In comparison, Wimbledon runner-up Muchova landed 14 winners and just nine unforced errors as she impressed with smart drop shots and piercing groundstrokes.

“I would be really humbled [if I was Boulter], I would sit down with my team and say ‘OK, we need to change something big time’,” former world number five Daniela Hantuchova told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“First of all, it was very obvious today that it was the serve. I feel like it needs to be cleared up because she was losing the rhythm and not using her legs. That’s the number one thing.

“If I am Boulter, I would be on the practice court tomorrow. If she still wants to invest everything into her tennis then she needs to be on the court.”

Boulter has had plenty to celebrate in her personal life this summer after marrying Australia’s Alex de Minaur, the world number seven, in July.

However, it has been a disappointing tennis season for the world number 62, with just two wins across the four Grand Slam tournaments.

Since suffering a first-round exit at Wimbledon, Boulter has won just two of the six matches she has played.

Andy Murray has long been a guiding figure for British tennis, but newly-married Katie Boulter will not be following his lead when it comes to keeping her wedding ring safe.

Three-time Grand Slam champion Murray, who married wife Kim in 2015, famously briefly lost his wedding band after playing with it tied to his shoe laces.

Murray had left his trainers – with the ring still attached – under a car to dry out after a practice session in California in 2021, and after discovering they were missing the next day, was eventually reunited with both after putting out an appeal for their return.

Boulter, who married Australia’s world number seven Alex de Minaur this summer, said she will not be making the same mistake.

“I learned from Andy. I’m not going to do that,” the 30-year-old said. “I don’t wear it. Not during matches.”

Boulter and De Minaur tied the knot at a small, private ceremony in England before holding a bigger celebration in Tuscany, Italy, in July.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Boulter said: “One was in the UK for my nearest and dearest. It was like eight people – very, very small, very much for my grandpa.

“It was a huge contrast to the Italian wedding, which had all of our closest people, all of our friends, and was a little bit more of a party and a lot of fun.”

When it came to De Minaur’s speech, however, Boulter admitted she was “sceptical”.

“I hadn’t seen him do any preparation for the speech at all. And he was like, ‘I’m just going to wing it. It’s fine. How hard can it be?’,” she said.

“He was amazing. He was so, good. I was crying the whole time. I think I permanently cried for like three hours straight during all the speeches.”

Since their wedding, the world number 60 has wasted no time in throwing herself back into tennis before the US Open, which gets under way on Sunday.

“I actually just chose to go straight back into the conditions, go into the deep end and see what we’ve got,” said Boulter, who lost in the first round in Washington and Toronto before suffering a second-round exit in Cincinnati.

“I do think the conditions in the States are very different from the UK. I think you can’t really replicate them.

“So I felt like I’d be a little underprepared coming to the US and just getting used to the conditions again would have been quite difficult.”

Boulter’s US Open begins with a first-round encounter against American wildcard Carol Young Suh Lee, who is ranked 143rd in the world.