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.