'I learned from Murray' - Boulter says she will not wear wedding ring during matches

Katie Boulter told BBC Sport on 28 August 2026, ahead of the US Open starting on Sunday, that she will not wear her wedding ring during matches after "learning from Andy Murray".

Boulter, who married Australia's world number seven Alex de Minaur in July, cited Murray's well-known incident in which the three-time Grand Slam champion briefly lost his wedding band after playing with it tied to his shoe laces. Murray, who married wife Kim in 2015, left his trainers with the ring attached under a car to dry after a practice session in California in 2021, discovered they were missing the next day and was eventually reunited with both after putting out an appeal for their return. "I learned from Andy. I'm not going to do that," the 30-year-old said. "I don't wear it. Not during matches."

Boulter described two weddings this summer, starting with a small private ceremony in the UK "for my nearest and dearest" attended by "like eight people - very, very small, very much for my grandpa." She said that was "a huge contrast to the Italian wedding, which had all of our closest people, all of our friends, and was a little bit more of a party and a lot of fun."

Recalling Alex de Minaur's speech, Boulter said: "I hadn't seen him do any preparation for the speech at all. And he was like, 'I'm just going to wing it. It's fine. How hard can it be?'" She added: "He was amazing. He was so, good. I was crying the whole time. I think I permanently cried for like three hours straight during all the speeches."

Since marrying, Boulter returned to competitive tennis in the United States, losing in the first round in Washington and Toronto before suffering a second-round exit in Cincinnati. "I actually just chose to go straight back into the conditions, go into the deep end and see what we've got," she said. "I do think the conditions in the States are very different from the UK. I think you can't really replicate them. So I felt like I'd be a little underprepared coming to the US and just getting used to the conditions again would have been quite difficult."

A group of British players also completed qualifying for the US Open, with Fran Jones, Harriet Dart and Harry Wendelken all winning their third and final qualifying matches on Friday and Toby Samuel advancing on Thursday after his opponent, Chile's Cristian Garin, retired during a lengthy rain delay. Jacob Fearnley lost to Austria's Jurij Rodionov in a rain-disrupted match that stretched across Thursday and Friday but secured a main-draw spot as a lucky loser and will play Spain's Martin Landaluce. The four qualifiers mark the first time that four British players have progressed from qualifying at an overseas Grand Slam since the Australian Open of 1988.

Those five qualifiers will join Arthur Fery, Cameron Norrie, Jan Choinski and Boulter in the main draws. Wendelken fought back to beat Lithuania's Vilius Gaubas 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (10-5) and will face Italian 22nd seed Luciano Darderi in the first round, while Samuel is up against the Czech Republic's Tomas Machac. Jones claimed a 6-4 6-1 win over Taiwan's Joanna Garland to qualify for a second successive year and will meet Poland's Magda Linette. Heather Watson missed out on the singles main draw as Dart recovered from a set and a break down to win 2-6 6-4 6-1; Dart said, "It's never easy playing against a friend and Heather is such an a great player and has so much experience. It showed for an hour and a half, I was really behind and she was playing some really good tennis. In the end I was able to stick to it somehow and find a way and turn it in my favour." Dart will play American Peyton Stearns in the first round.

Boulter's US Open campaign begins with a first-round match against American wildcard Carol Young Suh Lee, who is ranked 143rd in the world.