Boulter's Clay-Court Campaign Begins with Early Defeat

Katie Boulter's clay-court season got off to a disappointing start as she was eliminated in the first round of the Linz Open in Austria, losing in straight sets to Elena-Gabriela Ruse on Monday. Ruse secured a hard-fought victory, winning 7-6 (6-3) 7-6 (6-2) against the British No 3. Boulter struggled initially, being broken in her first two service games, but managed to level the score at 4-4 in the first set. However, Ruse, ranked 25 places below Boulter, took control of the opening tie-break and although she was broken at the start of the second set, she regained her composure to break Boulter back. As Boulter served to stay in the match at 6-5 down, she saved a match point at 30-40 and held her serve to force another tie-break. Unfortunately for Boulter, she took an early 2-1 lead in the second-set tie-break but lost the next six points, ending her tournament prematurely. Ruse will now face either Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska or American seventh seed Ann Li in the last 16. The ATP and WTA Tours can be streamed live on Sky Sports or with the Sky Sports app and NOW, offering over 50 per cent more live sports content to Sky Sports customers at no extra cost.