LONDON (Reuters) -Emma Raducanu had a comfortable straight sets win over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and was one of three Britons to reach the second round of the WTA 500 tournament at Queen’s Club on Tuesday.
Bucsa had won their only previous meeting in the first round of this year’s Singapore Open, but this time the Spaniard was no match for the 22-year-old wildcard and Raducanu strolled to a 6-1 6-2 win.
“I’m still trying to find my groove on this surface,” Raducanu said.
“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.
Top tier women’s tennis has returned to Queen’s Club for the first time since 1973 and the home crowd had plenty to cheer on day two with Katie Boulter and Heather Watson also winning their first-round matches.
“To have the women back here, it feels very special,” Boulter, current British number one, said.
“It’s something I’ve dreamt of, actually walking out on this court, after the last couple of years coming as a fan watching the men.”
Boulter beat Australian qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic 7-6(4) 1-6 6-4 while Watson defeated Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva 6-4 6-3 to earn a second-round clash with another Kazakh, fourth seed former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
The other Briton in action, Francesca Jones went down 6-2 6-4 to American McCartney Kessler who will meet top seed Zheng Quinwen.
(Reporting by Trevor StynesEditing by Toby Davis)
Comments