Whilst the 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu has taken a lot of the limelight in recent years when it comes to British women’s tennis, there is actually another female player who has been steadily rising through the ranks over the last decade to become Britain’s number one. Perhaps more importantly she is from the same city as me and is a fan of it’s football team!

My 1st selfie with Britain’s No. 1 female tennis player! Can you recognise her?!!

Around ten years ago I began to hear the name of Katie Boulter mentioned by BBC Radio Leicester in sports bulletins or tweets. As someone who is proud to come from Leicester, I sat up and took notice and have followed her career ever since. The last six years in particular have seen her climb the rankings and this year she entered the top 30 in the world. She was definitely one of the players I wanted to see at this year’s Toray Pan Pacific Open (TPPO) tournament in tennis and I was delighted when I heard she’d be competing in Tokyo.

After waiting patiently for the day two schedule to be released (following the end of play on the first day) I saw Boulter would be playing the evening session, and so rushed off to a convenience store to purchase an advance ticket as that’s cheaper than on the gate. Her  match against Priscilla Hon of Australia (ranked at 217) was the second match of the evening on Center Court (not coat!) meaning that it would not start till at least 6:30 pm but of course that depended on how long the first one lasted.

Typically though the quick match I was hoping and praying for turned into an epic and really couldn’t have lasted much longer than it did! Eventually at about 8:50 pm the Aussie and the Brit were introduced albeit in the wrong order! Priscilla Hon was announced to the sparse crowd but Boulter walked out on to court which took me by surprise. I was thus unable to get a photo or video of her making her maiden TPPO appearance on court!

The match finally began just before 9:00 pm with only about a hundred people in an arena that can hold 10,000 spectators. Sports matches usually finish around this time in Japan (a little later for baseball sometimes!) so not many of those who watched the first match hung around.

Thankfully at this late hour of the night Boulter was in no mood to be messing around and romped away with the first set in half an hour. She looked in fine form and made some lovely shots.

If you’ve ever wondered what those nice TV shots of players sitting down in the break are like then the photo below shows you the reality of a bored cameraman just pointing a camera in her direction and almost being embarrassed to look at her himself!

Hon still wanted to book her place in the next round and recovered in the second set and fought hard. It was neck and neck for a while, and when Boulter was serving for the match at 5-3 I thought it was coming to an end. It wasn’t to be though as Hon broke back to make it 5-4. Would we ever get to go home? Thankfully Boulter instantly broke Hon’s serve and spirit, and screamed with joy as she hit the winning shot.

Game, set and match at just after 10:15 pm!

For someone who had just a 2000 yen ticket up in the top part of the stand I had done well to move down as close to the front as I could get. At the conclusion of the match, I thought I’d see if I could get courtside to meet the match winner. I asked a staff member if I could enter the courtside area. He initially said no and that it was just for ticket holders in that area but seconds later he gestured that I could go through. Fantastic!

As is customary for the match winner, Katie signed four match balls and whacked them into the audience but I was way too close to get one. As nice as it was to get one of Jack Draper’s match balls at the men’s equivalent of this tournament the previous month, I wasn’t too bothered about aquiring a new one. Meeting her was of course way more preferable.

Katie came over to the lady next to me who presented her with some kind of gift which she seemed so pleased to receive. She said she would be back before going the opposite direction to sign some autographs and take a few pictures with other fans.

In the meantime, I was getting nervous and starting to shake a bit before she returned. There were a couple of photographers out of shot taking a photo of me getting my selfie.

The winning shot!

These are kind of pressure situations as you only really get one shot at getting a good photo. I congratulated her on the victory, and said I hoped there would be more people present for her next round match. She said she was just grateful that anyone had stayed so late (by Japanese standards!) to see her triumph. I asked to take a photo with her and tried to take a second one but she was already moving onto the next person as no doubt she just wanted to get back to her hotel and sleep as soon as possible.

Selfie Fail!

After a few more autographs and photos she headed for the players tunnel but a few more fans wanted a picture, and one of them even presented her with a camera on a selfie stick.

Knowing that there was a train at 10:30 pm I raced off to catch that (but not until I’d said a big thank you to the staff member who helped me out) on what was a late night for me. On the way home I was alerted by a friend that the TV cameras had picked me out a few times at the conclusion of the match, and so the following morning I found the video of the live feed and skipped through to the final point and then saw myself dropping my flag as I left my seat to head down to the courtside area. How embarrassing!

It’s been a bit of a Leicester love-in for me in Tokyo this month as watching Boulter in action came just a fortnight after seeing Kasabian live in concert at Zepp Haneda. Hopefully she can become as successful as them and join the next tier of top players whilst going a bit deeper into one of the Grand Slam tournaments.

Click here to read ‘Two Tennis Tournaments In Tokyo Serve Up Mixed Fortunes For Me!’

Click here to read ‘Naomi Osaka Is The Star Attraction In Tokyo As Japan Compete In The World Cup Of Tennis’

Click here to read ‘A Brit Finally Plays At Tokyo’s Top Tennis Tournament & I Got To Meet Her!’

Click here to read ‘I Finally Got To See Naomi Osaka Play Tennis But It Didn’t Quite Go To Plan!!’