Emma Raducanu, Katie Boulter, and Heather Watson all started their grass court seasons on the right foot today with first-round wins at the Queen’s Club Championships.
Women compete at Queen’s this year for the first time since 1973, and the hosts welcomed the Tour to South-West London in some style.
The British No2 Raducanu bounced back from a disappointing second-round exit at Roland Garros with a comfortable 6-1 6-2 win over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa.
The Spaniard had won the only previous meeting between the pair in the first round of this year's Singapore Open, but this time she was no match for the 22-year-old wildcard and Raducanu strolled to a comfortable win.
"I'm still trying to find my groove on this surface," Raducanu said afterwards.
"I knew today would be a very difficult match, I lost to Cristina earlier in the year, so I was trying to make sure that didn't happen again and fight to get myself into the second round."
Raducanu is likely to face a tougher task in the next round, where she could meet current Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova if the Czech seventh seed overcomes Slovak Rebecca Sramkova.
For Boulter, the going was not so smooth. She was pushed all the way by Australian qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic, requiring a deciding set to win 7-6 (4) 1-6 6-4.
The 28-year-old British No1, who secured a doubles victory alongside compatriot Raducanu on Monday, was broken in her opening game, but found herself in a position to serve for the set after taking a 5-3 advantage.
But Tomljanovic immediately broke back, forcing an opening set tiebreak in which she was edged out by an emphatic winner from Boulter.
The qualifier seized control in the second set, winning five straight games to force a decider, and made it six games in a row when she claimed the first game of the third.
Boulter began to swing the contest in her favour, breaking Tomljanovic's serve three times to make it 5-4 and, with the Australian serving to stay in it, digging deep to see herself through after nearly two-and-a-half hours.
Earlier, Watson set up a second-round meeting with fourth seed and former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina after upsetting world No27 Yulia Putintseva, 107 places above her in the rankings, 6-4 6-3. She won all four of her break points, closing proceedings in just an hour and 22 minutes.
Francesca Jones hit six double faults as she was beaten in straight sets 6-2 6-4 by McCartney Kessler of the USA.
Additional reporting: PA, Reuters
