Brits Katie Boulter, Emma Raducau score wins at Queen’s Club

The HSBC Championships’ first women’s event in over 50 years saw a pair of British favorites advance through their first rounds on Tuesday, Katie Boulter scoring a 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4 victory over Ajla Tomljanovic followed by Emma Raducanu’s 6-1, 6-2 win against Cristina Bucșa.

A former US Open champion, Raducanu blitzed Bucșa in her first grass-court match of the season, easing past the Spaniard in 64 minutes.

Boulter endured a marathon against Tomljanovic before ultimately edging through in two hours and 21 minutes.

Raducanu, 22, has been in the midst of a revitalizing 2025 season, reaching the Miami Open quarterfinals and the fourth round on clay at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. Despite a second-round Roland Garros defeat to four-time champion Iga Swiatek, the Toronto-born Brit looks back to her best after dealing with multiple injuries in the four years since winning her maiden major title in Flushing Meadows.

A perennial stop on the ATP Tour calendar, Queen’s Club is hosting its first women’s tournament since 1973, when Olga Morozova defeated Evonne Goolagong in a straight-sets final. Raducanu accepted a wild card into the draw and will next face either Rebecca Sramkova or No. 7 seed Barbora Krejcikova, who is also the reigning Wimbledon champion.

Krejcikova has dealt with injuries and inconsistency since winning her second Grand Slam title last summer, the former world No. 2 playing just two tournaments this season. The Czech returned to action at the Internationaux de Strasbourg last month and lost in the second round of Roland Garros to Veronika Kudermetova.

Boulter will next face either No. 5 seed Diana Shnaider or Magdalena Fręch, Shnaider coming off a semifinal finish at Roland Garros in women’s doubles alongside Mirra Andreeva. Boulter won a WTA 125K title in Paris in the lead up to Roland Garros, but like Raducanu, lost in the second round of Roland Garros to Australian Open champion Madison Keys.