Harriet Dart joins Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal in the third round (Picture: Getty)
British No.2 Harriet Dart awkwardly eliminated British No.1 Katie Boulter at Wimbledon 2024 with a 4-6 6-1 7-6 (10-8) comeback victory on Thursday.
The duo locked horns in a tense showdown on the No.1 Court with the British crowd largely not knowing which player to back and throw their support behind.
It was world No.100 Dart who narrowly came out on top against 32nd-seed Boulter and the 27-year-old next faces China’s Wang Xinyu with a fourth-round spot up for grabs.
Dart’s victory sees her join fellow Brits Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal in the third round after they beat Elise Mertens and Clara Burel respectively on Wednesday.
Her win also means Dart has matched her best-ever Wimbledon women’s singles performance, having also reached the third round five years ago.
There was barely anything to seperate Boulter and Dart in a close first set but the former edged it 6-4 with a singular break after saving three break points herself.
That massively fired up Dart, who took control early-on in the second set by winning a whopping four games in a row with an impressive double break.
Harriet Dart dominated the second set to force a dramatic decider (Picture: Getty)
The camera then panned to Boulter’s tennis boyfriend Alex de Minaur, who was watching nervously, before the British No.1 secured a break to keep the second set alive – only for Dart to break and hold yet again to take the second set 6-1.
That set up a dramatic decider and Boulter had clearly raised her level as she cut down on the unforced errors, with Australian world No.9 De Minaur standing up after every point that his girlfriend won to try and give her a boost of energy.
But it was Dart who held her nerve in the third and final set, clinching it 7-6 (10-8) to become the third British woman to book a third-round place at Wimbledon 2024.
Katie Boulter fails to reach second week
Speaking at the start of the Championships, former British No.1 Tim Henman insisted that Katie Boulter was good enough to reach the second week and that she would progress further than Emma Raducanu.
‘I think Katie Boulter [will progress further than Emma Raducanu at Wimbledon],’ Henman told Metro.co.uk.
‘She is knocking on the door of the top 20. She’s a bit more experienced and she’s played a lot more tennis.
‘I definitely think they both could be in the second week. It’s going to be interesting to see.’