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Britain's Katie Boulter admits she feels she has to "pick between my physical condition and my professional position" as the competition continues for a place in next January's Australian Open main event.

While the regular WTA Tour competitive period is completed, there are still position points to be gained in South American nations, neighboring countries, various venues and France.

The female competitor lineup for the first Grand Slam of the 2026 season will be calculated from the global standings of the December cutoff, which could create a difficult choice for athletes approaching the cut.

Physical Setbacks

Ex- British top-ranked player Boulter tore an groin injury in her final event of the year in Hong Kong last period, and is now weighing up whether to play in the WTA 125 development competition in Angers, France, in the initial week of December.

Boulter's current physical issue, and the fact she would need to secure at least three matches in the European event to boost her standing, means she may well ultimately not competing.

Different Systems

In opposition, men's competitors are not facing the equivalent dilemma, as for the first time the male Australian Open participant roster will be created from current week's standings, which is the ATP's standard season-concluding standing calculation.

The adjustment is intended to discouraging athletes from chasing position points during what is fundamentally the break period.

Training Transitions

This year has been a difficult one for Boulter.

She achieved merely 14 Tour-level major tournament matches and recently parted ways with instructor Biljana Veselinovic after a extended working relationship in which she won three WTA championships.

"Biljana is an outstanding instructor, and an exceptionally good person as well, which makes things extremely hard," Boulter said.

The pursuit for a replacement instructor is actively progressing, seeking a professional who has high-level experience as Boulter still believes she can be a world-class player.

Career Objectives

"Progressing with a different trainer, one thing I'm absolutely certain on is that they are going to be a professional who has considerable expertise in how to make it to the peak performance of this sport," she stated.

"I've been ranked as advanced as 23 and I am confident I can climb back to that level. I am not convinced my performance has diminished, I feel the reliability should improve.

"My objective is not simply to be positioned 50, 40, 30, twenty - we've been there. The goal is to be inside the elite group."