Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu began her grass-court season with an impressive straight-set victory over Anna Blinkova in the first round of Queen’s in London on Tuesday.
Raducanu won the rain-interrupted match 6-0, 6-3 in one hour to secure her first victory on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz since Indian Wells in March. After reaching the third round in Indian Wells, the British No. 1 was sidelined by illness and returned only in Strasbourg. She lost her opening matches in both Strasbourg and Roland Garros before this week.
Although Blinkova landed a higher percentage of first serves (67.5% compared with 62.5% for Raducanu), she won only 29.6% of those points, compared with 72% for the Brit. Raducanu also converted six of her eight break-point opportunities en route to victory.
Now ranked No. 42 in the PIF WTA Rankings, Raducanu will be aiming to reach the quarterfinals for a second consecutive year. Her run to the quarters last year remains the best grass-court result of her career.
She will next face the winner of the match between No. 17 seed Sorana Cirstea and qualifier Maddison Inglis.
Kostyuk pulls out with ankle injury
Meanwhile, Roland Garros semifinalist Marta Kostyuk was forced to withdraw from the tournament because of a right ankle injury. The Ukrainian, who has risen to No. 12 in the rankings after reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal in Paris, will be replaced in the draw by lucky loser Donna Vekic, who will now face 17-year-old Briton Mika Stojsavljevic.
Sixth seed Jovic into second round
Sixth seed Iva Jovic opened her campaign at Queen’s with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over qualifier Antonia Ruzic in one hour, 23 minutes. Despite hitting six double faults, the American converted five of seven break-point opportunities to win the first meeting between the two players.