After starting the season as a top-25 player, Katie Boulter has struggled to find her best tennis. The Brit has faced some physical setbacks and failed to rediscover the form that saw her pick up two titles last year. And she faced another blow when she lost to Marta Kostyuk on Tuesday.
Things have still been looking up for Boulter, who snapped a four-match losing streak in Cleveland last week. But the British No. 2 has now sensationally been advised to be done with tennis and "have babies" with her fiance, ATP star Alex de Minaur.
Boulter and De Minaur got engaged during the off-season and have since enjoyed chatting about their upcoming nuptials. However, retired tennis icon Martina Navratilova has jokingly suggested that they speed up their plans.
After Boulter suffered a 6-4 6-4 defeat to No. 27 seed Marta Kostyuk, the Sky Sports pundits discussed her recent poor run of form, and ex-ATP pro Ryan Harrison encouraged the Brit to get more matches under her belt.
"If you're Katie Boulter, you've got to try and do everything you can to finish the season strong," he said.
"As you said, she's been struggling for form a little bit, she's going to have to get some matches in, she's going to have to get that match count up as we look at the last third of the season."
Navratilova had other ideas. "Or maybe just get married, have babies, and be done with it. No more stress," she laughed.
But former world No. 40 Harrison pointed out that it may not be the best solution. "You said no more stress. That's no more tennis stress, right? Because you have a little baby running around, it's a different sort of stress," he replied.
Whatever Boulter chooses to do following her US Open exit, the Brit appears to be in a much better headspace than she was a few weeks ago.
Ahead of the tournament, the world No. 48 said: "I really feel like I regrouped and started building again.
"And I feel like I'm in a much better place even than I was on the grass now. I kind of found myself again, which is really important. So it's exciting because I feel like I'm me again."
Fans can still expect to see Boulter back on a tennis court soon. The three-time title winner will represent Britain in the upcoming Billie Jean King Cup Finals, which will take place in Shenzhen from September 16 to 21.
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