Emma Raducanu handed tough Queen's draw and could play Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova in second round
Women will play at Queen's Club next week for the first time in more than 50 years at the inaugural HSBC Championships, featuring the likes of Raducanu, Katie Boulter and top-10 stars Madison Keys and Zheng Qinwen
Saturday 7 June 2025 18:15, UK
Emma Raducanu could face current Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova in the second round of the HSBC Championship at Queen's Club, which starts on Monday.
The 22-year-old will face a qualifier in the first round and could face Krejcikova after that if she comes through her match with Slovakia's Rebecca Sramkova.
Raducanu will be in action for the first time since losing in straight sets to Iga Swiatek in the second round of the French Open last month.
The 2021 US Open champion's best results on clay saw her reach the round of 16 in both Rome and Strasbourg and she is now turning her attention to the grass court season where she is scheduled to play at Queen's and Berlin ahead of Wimbledon in early July.
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Saturday's draw for the inaugural HSBC Championships also paired British No 1 Katie Boulter with a qualifier in her opening match.
If she advances to the second round, she will play either Diana Schnaider or Magdalena Frech.
Other British players competing in the first home tournament of the season include Francesca Jones, who will play American McCartney Kessler in the first round and could face world No 7 Qinwen Zheng in the second round.
Sonay Kartal will play Daria Kasatkina in the first match and might face fellow Brit Jodie Burrage, who will play Amanda Anisimova in the first round.
Queen's returns to the WTA calendar after a 52-year absence with Zheng the highest ranked player in the field after world No 3 Jessica Pegula withdrew last week.
2024 US Open runner-up Pegula was set to be the highest ranked player in the draw, but the American withdrew along with Japan's four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka on Thursday.
The four highest-ranked players in the draw - Zheng, Madison Keys, Emma Navarro and Elena Rybakina were all handed byes into the second round.
The tournament will run from June 9-15.
LTA commits to equal prize money by 2029
The Lawn Tennis Association has committed to paying equal prize money to female players at Queen's and Eastbourne by 2029.
The LTA announced on Thursday it would pay total prize money of $1.415m (approximately £1m), the highest for a WTA 500 event of its draw size this year.
But that is still less than half of the prize pot that will be paid out to the male players the following week for the equivalent tournament on the ATP Tour.
At the Lexus Eastbourne Open, a joint WTA and ATP event staged the week before Wimbledon beginning on June 23, the difference is even starker, with the women's prize fund of $389,000 (approximately £287,000) significantly inferior to the more than £630,000 that will be paid to the men.
While prize money is equal at the grand slams and some joint tour events, generally remuneration on the WTA Tour is substantially lower than the ATP.
Scott Lloyd, the governing body's chief executive, said: "We are making significant increases this year to the women's prize money at Queen's and Eastbourne and want to achieve equal prize money as soon as possible."
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