BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU Tiger and WTA No. 172 Kayla Cross captured the most notable win of her professional career, downing current world No. 69 and former Top 25 player Katie Boulter. The victory not only moves her through to the second round of the National Bank Open, but it marks her first-ever win in a WTA Masters 1000 tournament.
“I’m definitely shocked,” Cross admitted in her post-match press conference. “I think I said ‘oh my gosh’ a few times while I was walking up to the net. It still doesn’t really feel real, so I’m just trying to soak it all in.
I got a text message last night asking if I wanted to be on Center Court, and I obviously said yes right away,” Cross added. “The game plan going in was to try and play my game, go for the shots, live in the moment and be happy out there.”
Cross opened the match with steady play, as the two traded service games for much of the opening set. The Canadian native forged ahead with the first break of the match, taking a 5-3 advantage before Boulter fired right back to get back on serve at 5-5. Little separated the two as they entered the first-set tiebreak upon reaching 6-6. Here, Cross built an early lead at 4-1 and refused to let it slip, maintaining her cushion as she closed the set 7-6 (3).
Boulter kept herself in the match, holding the lead over Cross through the middle stages of the second set. The Tiger faced break points at 2-2, and again at 4-4, but held strong to remain on serve. In the final stretch, Cross leveled up at 5-5 to steal the decisive break of the match, securing the final two games and completing the straight-sets win with a second-set score of 7-5.
Just two weeks after she captured the biggest title of her professional career and a career-high world ranking of No. 168 at the WTT W75 Granby, Cross continues to shine on home soil in her 2026 campaign.
Tomorrow, barring any weather delays, Cross will face the No. 28 seed in the tournament and WTA No. 31, Ann Li. All matches can be streamed on Tennis Channel and WTA TV.
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