Katie Boulter is still looking to make the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career after losing out to one of the top products of America’s college system.
The British No 1 went down 6-4 6-3 in 97 minutes to last year’s NCAA champion Peyton Stearns in a third round which was delayed until the evening.
Playing on the same Court 17 at Flushing Meadows where Emma Raducanu won at the same stage two years ago, Boulter struggled to contain the forehand power of the world No 59, ranked two places above her.
Aside from earning £151,000 Boulter’s wins in New York are likely to take her to No 50 in the world after the tournament, but this was a decent draw to make the last sixteen of the US Open alongside her boyfriend, Alex de Minaur.
The highly mobile Stearns raced to a 4-1 lead in impressive fashion, but her level then went down and the 27 year-old from Leicestershire got back to 4-4 was then 30-30 against her opponent’s serve.
Katie Boulter was defeated in the third round of the US Open by American Peyton Stearns
The 21-year-old Stearns won the match in straight sets, defeating Boulter 6-4 6-3 in 97 minutes
The former Texas Longhorn won last year’s NCAA championship is ranked No 59 in the world
That was as good as it got for Boulter, who was broken in the next game after a couple of backhand errors.
At 2-3 in the second set the British player served two double faults which saw her broken to love. There was one last chance at 3-5 when she two break points to get back on serve, but the 21 year-old American, a former student in Texas, was able to close it out.
Boulter said later: ‘I wouldn’t say that was my best tennis, I gave it everything but I have to learn from it. Her forehand is one of the best on the women’s side and I played into a bit and that’s what I have to learn.
‘That hurt me tonight, I want to be greedy and get to a place where I’m satisfied. The conditions are a bit deader at night and I’m not as effective but you could probably say the same for her, and you have to deal with it.’
That marked the end of a broadly disappointing day for the Brits, with Cam Norrie falling in straight sets and Dan Evans putting up some decent resistance against Carlos Alcaraz.
Jack Draper, playing his fourth round on Monday, became the last Brit standing at a Grand Slam for the first but doubtless not the last time.
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