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British No 1 Katie Boulter sealed her first WTA 500 tournament victory with a stunning 5-7 6-2 6-2 win over Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk in the final of the San Diego Open.

Boulter, who claimed her maiden championship on grass in Nottingham last summer, recorded her fifth straight victory over higher-seeded players at the event in California to lift the biggest title of her career.

The 27-year-old from Leicester was watched by boyfriend Alex De Minaur, who scheduled an early-morning flight after retaining his title in Acapulco at the weekend.

“I want to say a small special thank you to my boyfriend,” she said during her post-match speech. “He finished last night at midnight and I really want to embarrass him.

“He got on a 4.15 taxi this morning and six o’clock flight to be here today, so I do appreciate it.”

After an even start between the two, the sixth-seeded Ukrainian began to get the better of Boulter, 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 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.

She continued: “This week has been very, very special for so many different reasons. This one is pretty amazing, I’ve worked very hard for it, I played some incredible tennis all week.

“Today was a complete battle, with myself as well, because I was a little bit nervous. But I managed to get over the line, and that I’m very proud of.

“A lot of it was about me staying as tough as I possibly could mentally, and I managed to keep my cool and actually kind of went within myself and calmed myself down a lot. I think that really helped me, and then I started to relax and play through shots a little bit more.”

Boulter has had a flying start to the 2024 season and the victory over Kostyuk guarantees she will break into the top 30 for the first time.

Kostyuk paid tribute to her family in Ukraine after the match, saying: “I don’t want to make this too sad, but first of all, I want to say hello to my family back in Ukraine.

“It’s been a difficult time for them and I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, but there’s no one who wants me to win more than they do.”

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