By Frank Dalleres
British No1 Katie Boulter credited the New York crowd with inspiring her to victory after she won a main draw match at the US Open for the first time on Tuesday.
Boulter swept past Diane Parry of France 6-4 6-0 in 82 minutes to reach the second round, where she will face China’s Yafan Wang.
The 27-year-old, who reached a career-high world ranking of 60 this month, fired off 31 winners against Parry before clinching the match with a 106mph ace.
“I felt the love out there today which was really, really nice,” said Boulter. “It was such a good atmosphere.
“What I love most is those front courts where they have all the matches going along all the time. It’s a challenge for me to focus and stay in the moment, and not hear all the other courts going on, which is what I did unbelievably well today.
“The fans got me over the line. I don’t know if they were British, American. I think they were everything, which was super nice. There were a lot of GB flags, which made me feel very at home.
“I did appreciate it out there. When you hear little kids screaming your name, that’s when it pushes you. It makes you think for a second, ‘hey, this is where I want to be and these are the matches that I want to play’.”
Boulter’s next opponent Wang pulled off one of the upsets of day two of the US Open, beating 2022 semi-finalist Caroline Garcia 6-4 6-1.
Fellow Briton Cameron Norrie also advanced with ease, beating Russian Alexander Shevchenko 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in just 91 minutes.
The 16th seed had not won a match since Wimbledon but put his recent wobbles behind him in a confident display against world No83 Shevchenko.
Norrie’s best Grand Slam run came at the US Open last year, when he reached the fourth round before losing to current world No7 Andrey Rublev.
Elsewhere at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday, women’s fifth seed Ons Jabeur needed medical attention for breathing difficulties in a 7-5 7-6 (7-4) win over Colombia’s Camila Osorio.
