- Dart appeared to query rival’s professionalism in Nottingham
- Andy Murray beats Dominic Stricker to make men’s semi-final
PA Media
Harriet Dart had a fiery exchange at the net after she lost in straight sets to the British No 1, Katie Boulter, at the Nottingham Open.
Boulter completed a 6-3, 7-5 win in the all-British match to reach her first WTA Tour semi-final, but as the players shook hands Dart had clearly taken exception to something. She appeared to question her opponent’s professionalism, to which Boulter replied: “It’s nothing personal. Mate, I do it every single match.”
Boulter said in her on-court interview: “It was a battle out there. You could see how much it meant to me to get through that match. It’s awful playing a friend but I tried to play the ball and not the player. Today it was my day.”
She was joined in the semi-finals by Jodie Burrage, the British No 3, who is another making her first appearance in the last four after coming through a tight match against Poland’s Magdalena Frech. The 24-year-old won five games in a row to take the first set, finishing it off with an ace. But she looked up against it after requiring a medical time-out on her way to dropping the second, and fell a break down early in the third.
However, Burrage broke straight back and went on to win 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 in two hours and 21 minutes. “I’m absolutely knackered now,” she said on court.
“I wish I could stop playing three-set matches, but if it gets me the win, then I’ve got to grind through it.
“It was a really tough match. I am feeling it a little bit and in the second set, I was thinking too much about that and not about the tennis. Then I picked it up in the third set.
“This week has given me so much confidence. To come out and make my first semi-final in a WTA event, the confidence it gives me is massive and I will take it through to the next tournaments.”
Top-seeded Andy Murray completed a clean sweep of British victories on Nottingham’s Centre Court to make it through to the semi-finals, beating Dominic Stricker 7-6 (2), 7-5 for his eighth successive victory.
The 36-year-old is trying to win a second successive title on the second-tier Challenger Tour having triumphed in Surbiton last week and is yet to drop a set in Nottingham. He next faces Portugal’s Nuno Borges, the third seed.
Murray said: “This week has obviously been brilliant, the women have done extremely well and hopefully that continues through the year. It should be a fun weekend for the British tennis fans.
“It was a really, really tight match today against one of the best young players in the world. I’m really glad to get through that one because it was really close. That’s the best I’ve played across the last two weeks. It was really positive.”