Katie Boulter defends Wimbledon court scheduling after loss despite Harmony Tan admission

Katie Boulter has defended Wimbledon's decision to schedule her on Court 2 after losing to Harmony Tan. The home favourite won just two games in a 51-minute beatdown after being scheduled at 11am outside of the two main showcourts but her opponent has since admitted she benefited from the match being relegated from Centre.

Boulter made her Centre Court debut in the previous round, upsetting last year's finalist and sixth seed Karolina Pliskova to become one of the four Brits to make it to the third-round. After her heroics, fans were left stunned when the British No 3 was scheduled first at 11am on Court 2 for her first-ever Grand Slam third-round match instead of on one of the showcourts - Centre or Court 1.

But the 25-year-old has now defended the tournament for their decision despite being handed a 6-1 6-1 defeat by Serena Williams' conqueror, saying she "never expected" to receive Centre Court billing. "In terms of the scheduling, no, not at all," she said when asked whether she was surprised to be shunned from the bigger courts.

"You can look at it on paper. You're supposed to put the best matches there are out there on Centre Court and on Court 1." While the Leicester local said she would have "loved" to be back on a big court, she explained why she thought other players deserved to be there over herself.

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"We've got Iga who is out there on an I don't know how many match winning streak. I would never expect to be put ahead of players like that," Boulter admitted. "It's a privilege to play on those courts. Obviously I would have loved to have played. At the end of the day I would never expect that."

While the world No 118 has enjoyed a