Boulter recovers to beat Sasnovich with statement of fierce ambition

British No 1 joins Draper in second round with defeat of Belarusian qualifier

- Tumaini Carayol

In the final months of a career-best year that has seen her establish herself as a seeded player in the biggest tennis tournaments in the world, the pressing question surrounding Katie Boulter is whether she is ready to piece together a deep grand slam run. Boulter has already won multiple WTA titles, she has beaten numerous top players and earned the respect of her peers, but reaching the second week of a major has so far eluded her.

After some early concerns in her opening round match at the US Open, Boulter remained composed as she shook off her tentative play and struck the ball with authority, recovering from a set down to defeat the qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.

"I do think it's important that I start making moves in bigger tournaments, because if I want to go from No 30 to 20 [in the rankings], there's a huge jump, and if I want to go from 20 to 10, there's a massive jump," said Boulter. "So for me, it's about looking at where I can start gaining a bit more, like bigger points. And obviously I'm going to have to play better, but I do feel like I've got that game to do that. I have shown that in the past, it's just about putting it in these weeks and prioritising them a little bit more, which is something that I just haven't done before."