Boulter blames faltering serve for first-round exit

Katie Boulter vowed to address problems with her serve after her struggles continued with an opening-round loss at the US Open yesterday.

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The former British number one will drop outside the world's top 50 after a 6-4 6-4 defeat by 27th seed Marta Kostyuk.

Boulter has had a difficult season and admitted ahead of the match that she had begun to feel burnt out after heading straight from Wimbledon to the United States.

The 29-year-old is now in a much more positive place mentally but another eight double faults, often at important moments, contributed to the defeat, and Boulter is ready to go back to the drawing board.

"I need to address the serving," she said. "We've been trying so many different things but nothing is quite working yet. I think that side of my game needs to improve. I think if I can sort that then everything else will fall back into place."

Coco Gauff made a change to her coaching team ahead of the tournament, bringing in biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan, who previously helped Aryna Sabalenka, in a bid to cure her serving difficulties.