Katie Boulter surges to three-set comeback against Marta Kostyuk to win San Diego title

Great Britain's Katie Boulter surged two a three-set comeback in the final of the San Diego Open on Sunday night to topple Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, and win her second career WTA singles title.

The match started two hours later than expected after rain swept through San Diego in the late afternoon, and Boulter needed two hours and 13 minutes more to rally past Kostyuk in their first-ever meeting and win the biggest WTA singles title of her career to date. Boulter's previous title came last summer, when she triumphed at the WTA 250 in her home country in Nottingham. The world No. 49 is the lowest-ranked winner of a WTA 500 event since Liudmila Samsonova, then No. 106, triumphed on the grass courts of Berlin as a qualifier three years ago. The Brit did it in style, too, as she beat four seeded players in her five matches for the week.

In addition to Kostyuk, she toppled No. 2 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia in the second round, No. 6 seed Donna Vekic in the quarterfinals, and No. 3 seed Emma Navarro in the semifiinals. All five of Boulter's wins at the tournament were against Top 50 players (she also beat world No. 36 Lesia Tsurenko, also of Ukraine, in the first round), and she joins Johanna Konta as the only British women to ever win a WTA title of this level.

"I don't even know where to begin," Boulter said afterwards. "From the moment I walked into this club, you guys have been so warm and so helpful, and it's been honestly a privilege to be here in San Diego.

"I really didn't think I'd be standing here with a trophy right now, but I just want to say thank you to everyone who's been here and made it feel like home. Even the weather has made it feel a little bit like home."

The 27-year-old from Leicester will also crack the world's Top 30 for the first time on Monday, as she's set to rise to a career-best No. 27—21 spots past her previous best of No. 48. Her victory also closes out a successful week for one of tennis' power couples, as her boyfriend, Alex de Minaur, made it to San Diego after winning his own 500-level title in Acapulco, Mexico, less than 12 hours earlier.

"He finished last night at midnight ... and I want to embarrass him a little bit, he got on a 4:15 taxi this morning and a 6 o'clock flight to be here today, so I really appreciate it," she joked in the trophy presentation.

Boulter was the first to break serve in all three sets, each time at 1-1, but she needed to battle back from a set behind after nearly coming all the way back from 5-2 down. Kostyuk needed a total of seven set points to win the first set—Boulter saved one at 5-2, four at 5-4 and another at 6-5 before she served up her sixth double fault to end the set.

But after Kostyuk held serve to start both sets two and three, Boulter never again trailed. The Brit broke serve a combined five times from then on and never faced break point herself in the third set.

Kostyuk won her first career title exactly 12 months ago in this same week (the WTA 250 in Austin, Texas), but dropped to 1-1 in her career in WTA singles finals with the loss.