Jelena Ostapenko hits ‘worst double fault of all time’ with tennis fans bemused

A Grand Slam champion has served up one of the worst double faults in tennis history against Katie Boulter.

The British ace cruised into the quarter-finals at Eastbourne’s Rothesay International by dispatching Jelena Ostapenko in straight sets. Nailing her first-ever triumph over a Grand Slam champ, Boulter fended off a second-set comeback to take down the 2017 French Open winner 6-4 7-5.

Earlier in the match, there was a moment that left both Boulter and the crowd utterly gobsmacked, with a double fault from Ostapenko that defied belief. During a crucial deuce in the opening set’s ninth game, Ostapenko didn’t just fail to find her target service box, she missed the adjacent one too.

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It seemed for a second as if she’d forgotten which side of the court Boulter was playing on, with the crowd reacting with a mixture of gasps and laughter. One stunned fan took to social media, posting on X: “Ostapenko hitting perhaps the worst double fault of all time. It didn’t even make it into the *wrong* service box.”

Another chimed in with a bit of humour: “Admit it, we’ve done that at least once in the game.” A third quipped, questioning Ostapenko’s skills: “Can she even play tennis?”

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For Boulter though, this match was another stride in her impressive career march. After taking her inaugural WTA Tour title in Nottingham last year and besting Emma Raducanu en route to defending that title this summer, she is in a rich vein of form ahead of Wimbledon, which begins next week.

Following her latest victory, Boulter shared how those wins have relaxed her, saying: “It’s definitely taken a lot of pressure off me. This season is a slightly different situation for me. Today was a match I had nothing to lose, just swinging and having fun.”

Boulter got off to a quick start to the contest, establishing a 5-1 first-set lead before faltering, but eventually capitalised on a seventh set-point. The players exchanged early breaks in the second set before Boulter struck the decisive blow at 5-5 and then served out to secure her spot in the quarter-finals.