Katie Boulter continued her fine form on Tuesday, defeating Beatriz Haddad Maia in the Mexico Open first round.
Boulter, who received a tough draw in Mexico, defeated the former world number 10 6-4, 6-4.
Boulter, who is one of two British players in the draw alongside Heather Watson, will face Camila Osorio or Janice Tjen in the next round.
The British star is looking to win back-to-back titles after her recent title triumph in Ostrava. However, she will need to correct one concerning problem if she has any hope of doing so.
Katie Boulter’s serving issues come to the fore once again
Katie Boulter has played excellently at the start of 2026, and one does not wish to criticise her too harshly when she is winning matches on a consistent basis.
However, her serve has long been an issue; and on Tuesday, this issue reared its head once again.
Despite defeating Haddad Maia, Boulter landed a woeful 36 per cent of her first serves and hit nine double faults.
The British star was also broken five times during the match after offering up six break-point opportunities.
It is a credit to Boulter’s return game that she was able to stay in the match: the Brit broke Haddad Maia’s serve on seven occasions.
Boulter appeared to have turned a corner with her first serve this year, as she had only served under 50 per cent once in her eight previous WTA matches.
“A fantastic player, was already in the top 20, and she has unfortunately – we have talked about it so many times on our podcast – unfortunately, she just has the yips,” Andrea Petkovic said of Boulter’s serve in November last year.
“The serve… Katie Boulter, she always hits slice serves, doesn’t kick the second. She didn’t make many double faults, but when she got nervous, she made double faults, because of course, if you serve slice, it’s much riskier when your arm gets tight than when you serve a kick.
The 29-year-old will need to stop the bleeding on her serve, or their Mexico Open campaign may come to a close sooner than she would have hoped.
Mexico Open seeded players [1-8]
- Jasmine Paolini
- Emma Navarro
- Ann Li
- Marie Bouzkova
- Dayana Yastremska [lost first round]
- Janice Tjen
- Jessica Bouzas Maneiro
- Magda Linette
Katie Boulter’s start to 2026 has been impressive
Katie Boulter endured one of the toughest seasons of her career in 2025, falling from 23rd to 100th in the WTA rankings.
Her start to 2026 began in a similar vein. After losing in the Australian Open first round, Boulter fell to world number 120.
However, Boulter’s superb performance at the Ostrava Open has resulted in her rocketing back up the standings to world number 69.
As per the WTA live rankings, Boulter has climbed to world number 66 following her opening win in Mexico; and she could climb even further up the rankings with a deep run at the event in Merida.