- Katie Boulter beat Marta Kostyuk to claim her first WTA 500 tournament win
- The British No 1 thanked boyfriend Alex de Minaur for flying in to watch her play
- De Minaur flew 2000 miles from his own win to make it in time for the final
British No 1 Katie Boulter has sealed her first ever WTA 500 tournament win with a stunning comeback victory over Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk – and then took the time to publicly thank boyfriend Alex de Minaur in the crowd.
It has been a dream week for tennis’ power couple, which saw Boulter, 27, beat the Ukrainian Kostyuk 5-7 6-2 6-2 in the final of the San Diego Open to secure a £112,000 pay-day – just a day after De Minaur, 25, triumphed at the Mexico Open.
As Boulter accepted her award, the Brit couldn’t help but playfully ’embarrass’ her partner who had flown over 2000 miles at 6am make it in time to sit courtside and watch her hit a career high.
She said: ‘I want to say a small special thank you to my boyfriend. He finished last night at midnight and I really want to embarrass him.
‘He got on a 4.15am taxi this morning and six o’clock flight to be here today so I do appreciate it.’
Katie Boulter beat Marta Kostyuk to claim her first WTA 500 tournament win in San Diego
De Minaur (right) cheers on Boulter from courtside along with her coach Damian Rodriguez
Boulter and De Minaur are one of the sport’s power couples after getting together a few years back and the Aussie was determined to be at the Brit’s landmark final on Sunday
De Minaur, 25, defended his Mexican Open title after defeating the Norwegian Casper Ruud in Acapulco on Saturday – but in a sign of his devotion to his girlfriend, De Minaur skipped the Acapulco after-party because of his 6am flight which saw him make Boulter’s final.
De Minaur described their triumphs in WTA finals as a ‘pretty good week’ – especially seeing how Boulter fought back to win in San Diego.
After an even start between Boulter and Kostyuk, the sixth seeded Ukrainian began to get the better of the Brit, stringing multiple games together and rapidly closing in on the opening set.
Boulter fought back to even the set at 5-5, but Kostyuk regained the momentum to wrap up the first set 7-5.
Boulter ’embarrassed’ boyfriend De Minaur by thanking him for coming to watch her play
De Minaur won the Mexican Open title in Acapulco on Saturday by beating Casper Ruud
Boulter then found her groove in the second, dominating on her first serve to clinch the set 6-2 and force a deciding third set.
The Briton continued her ascendancy into the third, claiming the first break point of the set en route to opening up a 3-1 advantage.
Boulter broke again in the seventh game and stormed home from there to close out the victory in two hours and 13 minutes.
Last month, De Minaur opened up on how difficult it is being away from girlfriend Boulter on Valentine’s Day.
The Australian No 1 was playing at the Rotterdam Open at the time.
‘That’s the tough part of the tennis tours, that we didn’t get to spend some of these special days together,’ de Minaur had noted ruefully in an interview with the ATP, saying how he had fancied a romantic dinner.
Boulter beat the Ukranian Marta Kostyuk (pictured) 5-7 6-2 6-2 in San Diego on Sunday
De Minaur recently opened up on how tough it is to spend time away from Boulter on tour
The British No 1 posted a romantic photo of the couple on Valentine’s Day last month
He took to Instagram on Thursday to post a photo of the pair together in Capri, writing the caption: ‘Happy Valentine’s Katie Boulter. Can we go back already!?’
Boulter posted on her own Instagram story a photo of the couple together with the caption: ‘My valentine’.