Boulter successfully retained her Rothesay Open title in Nottingham on Sunday but admitted after battling through two matches in one day because of bad weather that she was not feeling well. She nevertheless headed to Edgbaston Priory but the 27-year-old struggled from the start against Ukrainian Kalinina and called the trainer and the doctor trailing 5-2. Boulter had her temperature and blood pressure taken and took some paracetamol before carrying on but, after losing the set 6-3, she shook her head and called it a day.
“I’m fine,” said a hoarse Boulter, who has been battling a cold for the last week. “Obviously a long 10 days. I wanted to come up here anyway, I wanted to try, but I’m just not quite ready yet.
I was quite sick during Nottingham but I just tried to stay in the tournament as long as I possibly could, as bad as I was feeling. “From my third match I was really struggling. But I just tried to get through it and finish the week.
It’s probably a little bit of a combination of everything.” Chief among Boulter’s motivations was the chance to secure a Wimbledon seeding, and she is now at risk of dropping out of the top 32 at the crucial moment. “It’s not the be all and end all but it was a chance for me to try and get seeded there,” said Boulter, who is still planning to play Eastbourne next week.
“At the end of the day, I’m going to play the person that I draw and I’m going to focus on that. I do work hard to get my ranking up as much a.