Britain’s Katie Boulter confirmed her reset after a dismal 2025 season by lifting the WTA 250 Ostrava Open trophy on Sunday, just weeks after lifting the new trophy, after overcoming Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch 5-7 6-2 6-1 from a set down in the Czech Republic on Saturday.
All week I was just swinging and going for it and trusting my game. But once you get to the finals, you start to question yourself. That became apparent when she took the first set from me. Katie Boulter
Boulter has found it difficult to rack up tour-level victories since Wimbledon last summer, mauling a kidnapper in her final event last year in Hong Kong.
Having married Australian world number 6 Alex de Minaur in July this year, Boulter said: “It feels incredible. I’ve been waiting a long time for this. I’ve worked extremely hard after a very difficult year and it feels like I’ve gotten the reward I deserved after putting in so much work.”
“I’m absolutely excited. I just don’t want to stop working. I have a big year ahead of me. It’s my wedding year and it’s going to be the best year of my life, no matter what.”
Leading 3-2 in the second set against Korpatsch, Boulter won the next 5 games, taking the second set and opening a 2-0 lead in the decider.
Korpatsch held serve to fall 2-1 behind, but the Brit was now in full control, winning the next 4 and beating her opponent 5-1 again to seal victory on her second championship point.
“We’re only a few weeks in, Mickey, but we already have one in the bag,” Boulter told her new coach, Michael Joyce, at the awards ceremony. “And it was on your birthday week. A huge week for you, 53 years old, big, so that was your gift to you.
“I hope we can continue to do a lot of work.”
At the turn of the year, Boulter ended her three-year working relationship with Biljana Veselinovic and teamed up with Joyce, Maria Sharapova’s former coach, and the fresh approach was reflected in the fact that she lost only two sets during the entire tournament in the Czech Republic.
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It is the 29-year-old’s fourth WTA Tour title and her second on hard courts, after San Diego in 2024, while she has also won two titles on grass, in both Nottingham, in 2023 and 2024.
Boulter arrived in Ostrava ranked 120, a long way from her career high of 23, but she will leave at number 84, which will be a huge boost to her confidence, as well as a ticket to direct entry to the WTA 1000 events in Miami and Indian Wells, and the majors.
The British No. 4 was the first to break serve in the ninth game of the opener, but Korpatsch, who was four places lower at No. 124, immediately broke back and took the next three games to take the set, 7-5.
Boulter again struck first in the second and broke in the third game, and this time she maintained her lead and never looked back, losing just three games in the next two sets to complete a dominant win in an hour and 59 minutes.
Both achieved a similar percentage of first serves, with Boulter on 66.2% and Korpatsch on 65.4%, but the Brit won more points with both her first and second deliveries, 75.6% on her first service points compared to 60.4% for the German, and 60.9% of her second service points compared to 50% for her opponent.
Boulter also converted 6 of 9 break points, while Korpatsch, who closed the first set with consecutive service breaks and led 1-0 in the second, went on to drop 12 of the next 14 games.
“All week I was just swinging and going for it and trusting my game,” Boulter said later. “But as soon as you get to the final, you start to question yourself. That became apparent when she took the first set from me.”
Katie Boulter showed her class in Ostrava and won her fourth WTA title in dominant fashion
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Korpatsch was aiming for her second WTA singles title, with her only title coming in Cluj-Napoca in 2023, and the loss dropped her to 1-2 in the WTA singles final.
Disappointment poured out of an emotional Korpatsch, who admitted during the presentation: “I feel like I played so bad today, but honestly I think you just didn’t make me play better.”
Korpatsch also added that she had felt “destroyed” in the dressing room a few seasons ago after a poor run of results, when Boulter had given her a motivational pep talk.
“You said something really nice to me, which honestly helped me a lot,” she said.
The win moves Boulter back into the Top 100 on Monday in the mid-80s after dropping out in November, while Korpatsch, whose career-high ranking is No. 71, is also on the cusp of returning to the Top 100.
The title win was in contrast to compatriot Emma Raducanu, who was comprehensively defeated by Romanian Sorana Cirstea in the WTA 250 Transylvania Open final.
Boulter has lost just one of the five WTA finals she has reached, and her victory demonstrated her ability to regroup after the disappointment of losing the tight opening set, and make the final a decider.
From then on she was in complete control, breaking the 30-year-old Korpatsch’s serve three times on her way to a first trophy in almost 15 months.
“To my stable team, my whole family back home… Everyone around me knows how difficult this past year has been for me,” Boulter added. “Today it’s all worth it.”
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