Raducanu fires Wimbledon warning with straight-set win at Queen's
Raducanu’s 6-0, 6-3 win over Anna Blinkova showed cleaner movement and enough sharpness to suggest her grass game is alive again.
Emma Raducanu began her Wimbledon build-up with the kind of opening that tells more than a comeback headline. She swept past Anna Blinkova 6-0, 6-3 at Queen's, won the first eight games without reply and finished a rain-disrupted match in just over an hour on the Andy Murray Arena.
The scoreline mattered because of what came before it. Raducanu, 23 and ranked world No. 42, had not won a match since 6 March, when she beat qualifier Anastasia Zakharova in the first round at Indian Wells. A post-viral illness kept her off the WTA Tour for more than two months, and her return to clay brought two defeats, in Strasbourg and then in the first round of the French Open, 16 days before this grass-court opener in west London.
For Raducanu, this was less about a burst of form than about evidence that her body and movement are starting to hold up on her best surface. She led 3-0 before a brief rain delay, then resumed the same pattern of early ball-striking and clean court coverage that kept Blinkova pinned back throughout the first set. The British No. 1 did not just win; she controlled the tempo from the start and did not allow the qualifier, who had come through after beating Jodie Burrage, any foothold.
Raducanu said she was “so happy” to come through the match, adding that there was “no place” she would rather have ended her run without a win for a few months. She also said she was grateful for the support and that she “thrives” on the atmosphere rather than feeling extra pressure. Afterward she wrote “back home” with a heart on the camera lens, a small but pointed gesture from a player who has spent much of the spring trying to re-establish rhythm and confidence.
There is still a long way to go before Wimbledon, which starts at the end of June, but Queen's has become a significant test case. This year’s women’s HSBC Championships are only the second edition after a 52-year absence from the WTA calendar, and the first round ran across 8-9 June with the final set for 14 June. Raducanu, a quarter-finalist here last year, now moves on to face Sorana Cirstea or Maddison Inglis, while the event also features Katie Boulter, Francesca Jones, Mika Stojsavljevic and Harriet Dart in the main draw. For Raducanu, this was a credible grass-court marker: not a declaration, but a sign that she can still stack points, matches and momentum on the surface that matters most.
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