The British number one was beaten 2-6 5-7 by her more experienced foe, who entered the WTA 1000 tournament sitting 62 places below her in the rankings and also had to come through qualifying to earn a main-draw appearance. Boulter had eased to victory over Tsurenko when the pair clashed in the first round of this year's San Diego Open, where the Briton won her maiden WTA 500 title, but she was a shadow of that player in Tuesday's contest as her 35-year-old foe earned a slice of revenge. Boulter double-faulted six times over the course of the match - the same amount as Tsurenko - and only managed to convert three of the 10 break points that she fashioned on the world number 96's serve.
A topsy-turvy opening set saw just one hold between Boulter and Tsurenko in the first seven games, but it crucially came the Ukrainian's way as the British number one failed to hold serve once throughout the opener. Defeat for Katie Boulter in Wuhan as Lesia Tsurenko takes the match 6-2, 7-5 #BackTheBrits 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.
com/0zS46NAojw After being broken five times in the opening set, Boulter finally gained some traction behind her own serve with a hold to love to start the second set, before her and Tsurenko traded breaks in the third and fourth game. Both women subsequently missed a few chances to regain the upper hand, but Boulter's serve eluded her when she needed it most in the 11th game, as Tsurenko broke for the final time for a 6-5 lead. The 35-year-old squandered her first chance t.