Raducanu stars as women’s tennis makes historic return to Queen’s

LONDON: Former US Open champion Emma Raducanu stole the spotlight as wom en´s tennis made a historic return to Queen´s Club for the first time in 52 years on Monday. With the dust barely set tled from the thrilling French Open titles won by Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Gauff last weekend, Queen´s marks the transition to grass courts and this year´s event is a mile stone moment in the tennis calendar. Since 1973, Queen´s has been solely an ATP event. But a ground-breaking deal was struck last year to play a WTA 500 tournament in Barons Court before the men compete from June 16. Reigning Wimble - don champion Barbora Krejcikova, Australian Open holder Madison Keys, 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina and world number five Zheng Qinwen are among the female stars set to feature at Queen´s this week. But Raducanu, who famously won the US Open as an 18-year-old qualifier in 2021, was the headline act on opening day. Fans queued for an hour to see the British star part nered with Katie Boulter in their 6-4, 6-2 first round dou bles win over Jiang Xinyu and Wu Feng-Hsien. Raducanu, who faces Cris tina Bucsa in the singles first round on Tuesday, enjoyed the experience on the inti mate Court One, bantering with Boulter and even laugh ing with spectators. “I love playing on those smaller courts where you really feel the support and crowd gets into it,” she said. “I was filling my bottle up and I was literally having a chat in the stands because that´s how close it is. It puts a really nice feel to it.” Raducanu, who has strug gled with poor form and back spasms this year, looked rein vigorated alongside Boulter. It was an especially memo rable afternoon for Raducanu after her visits to Queen´s as a child. “When I came with my dad, I was more hunting the (chocolate) brownies around the grounds and not so interested in the tennis! To be back now and competing in it feels amazing,” the world number 37 said. Fittingly, Queen´s centre court was officially renamed the Andy Murray Arena on Monday in tribute to the retired Scot´s five titles in the men´s event. Former world number one Murray has been an vocal advocate of women´s tennis and was coached as a boy by Russian Olga Morozova, who was the last female Queen´s champion in 1973. “Having women´s tennis back at Queen´s for the first time in over 50 years is bril liant,” the two-time Wimble don winner said. —AF