Billie Jean King Cup Finals: Brilliant Brit Boulter leads from the front, sets up Canada clash in Malaga

The top ranked player for Great Britain this week and their leading light, Katie Boulter has secured progression through to the Quarter-Finals of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals defeating Germany's Laura Siegemund 6-1, 6-2.

Defending champions Canada await in the last eight. It all started with Emma Raducanu who earlier this evening secured the win over Jule Niemeier 6-4, 6-4 for the opening win and the first point on the board. Then it was merely up to Boulter who was one of the most in-form players in the last few weeks of the season.

She reached the final in Hong Kong and prior to that, the semi-finals in Tokyo only losing to Diana Shnaider and a revived Sofia Kenin so she was one to watch this week among the other players who are perhaps running on tired legs and already on the beach ahead of the short off season.

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She claimed the win in just over an hour. The first set in particular was a sight to behold as she lost serve in the very first game but won six on the spin. Breaking immediately back, she barely lost a point on serve all set which proved to be a real weapon against a player in Siegemund who is well known for her tricks on the court and also frustrating players.

But Boulter knew the gameplan and stuck to it. She opened the second set breaking the serve again and continuing that run with two breaks on the spin whilst also coming from 40-0 down on her own serve to go 3-1 up. She then broke emphatically to love in the next game to go 4-1 and then 5-1 up. Unlike Raducanu too, she didn't struggle on closing it out. Her second match point saw her seal it.

We could now even see a repeat of Raducanu v Fernandez as they face off against Canada. The US Open final reunited. Both have gone different and difficult paths since then but it will be interesting to see whether the top Brit in Boulter gets picked to face the top Canadian in Fernandez.